Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Justice Department, under President Donald Trump’s renewed leadership, has become the epicenter of a political and institutional storm. In a move that has stunned both career law enforcement officials and outside observers, the department has hired Jared Wise, a former FBI agent and January 6 Capitol riot defendant, as a senior adviser. This decision, part of a broader wave of controversial pardons and personnel changes, has sent shockwaves through the ranks of federal law enforcement and reignited fierce debate over the legacy and meaning of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
According to reporting from NPR and NBC News, Wise’s path from FBI veteran to Capitol rioter and now to a senior Justice Department post is emblematic of a wider campaign by President Trump to rewrite the narrative of January 6. Wise, who served with the FBI for 13 years before retiring, traveled to Washington, D.C., to support Trump on that fateful day. Bodycam footage, published by NPR, shows Wise entering the Capitol through a door forced open by other rioters and later exiting through a shattered window. At approximately 4:21 p.m., two hours after the initial breach, Wise is seen approaching a police line, berating officers with, “You’re disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. You can’t see it.” As violence escalated, he repeatedly shouted, “Kill them. Kill them. Kill them. Get them. Get them.”
The video, now widely circulated, underscores the gravity of Wise’s actions. He was subsequently charged with trespassing on Capitol grounds, disorderly conduct, and aiding and abetting assault on police officers. In his own defense, Wise admitted to entering the Capitol and making inflammatory statements, but insisted he did not mean them literally. “It was probably obvious I should not have,” he testified, claiming that his reference to police as Nazis stemmed from his belief that they were using excessive force. Wise also expressed contrition for his words, maintaining, “I did not want anyone to die.”
Wise’s trial was set to proceed to a jury in January 2025. However, in one of his first acts upon returning to office, President Trump ordered the case dismissed, extending a blanket pardon to all January 6 defendants. These pardons swept up even the most violent participants, including those responsible for the 140 police injuries inflicted during the riot. According to NPR, “those pardons also covered the most violent defendants who were responsible for the 140 injuries to police officers that day.”
The decision to hire Wise as a senior adviser at the Justice Department has drawn sharp criticism and deep concern from within federal law enforcement. The department, when pressed for comment, described Wise only as “a valued member of the team,” and records confirm his role involves reviewing alleged weaponization of law enforcement by Democrats. This review is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to recast the events of January 6—not as an act of domestic terrorism, as previously characterized by the FBI, but as what Trump has called a “day of love.” The president has repeatedly described convicted supporters as political prisoners, a narrative that has found favor among a segment of his base but remains highly contentious nationwide.
The repercussions of these actions have rippled throughout the Justice Department and the FBI. According to NBC News correspondent Ken Dilanian, morale at the FBI is “as low as he has ever seen it,” with many agents feeling a climate of fear and uncertainty. The administration has fired dozens of prosecutors and agents who worked on January 6 cases, including respected veterans like Brian Driscoll—a nearly 20-year FBI agent who was dismissed for refusing to comply with demands related to the investigations. Dilanian reported, “There is a climate of fear… People who have the ability to retire are retiring. People are leaving for other jobs. And so decades of counterterrorism, counterintelligence, white collar fraud experience is walking out of that building, and that will take a generation to rebuild.”
Inside the FBI, the environment has shifted dramatically. Agents now find themselves compelled to offer effusive praise for political figures such as Kash Patel and Dan Bongino to maintain their positions, a development that one agent likened to conditions in North Korea. The widespread departures and retirements are not just numbers—they represent the loss of institutional memory and expertise that could take years, if not decades, to recover.
Trump’s approach to January 6 and its aftermath has also included high-profile settlements and symbolic gestures. The Justice Department paid nearly $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, the woman shot and killed while storming the Capitol. This comes despite the department’s earlier position that the shooting was justified in order to protect police and members of Congress. Additionally, two former January 6 defendants, including one convicted of assaulting police with a tomahawk, were not only pardoned but also given White House tours. One of them remarked, as reported by NPR, that he was “proud that he got to go from the big house to the White House.”
The contrasting narratives around January 6 have only grown more pronounced. Supporters of the administration argue that the prosecutions were politically motivated and that the real threat is the alleged weaponization of law enforcement by political opponents. Critics, meanwhile, see the mass pardons, the hiring of former rioters, and the firing of career officials as a dangerous politicization of the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agencies. As NBC News’s Dilanian put it, “They have rewritten history and they have co-opted the Justice Department and the FBI as tools of their political ends.”
For many Americans—across the political spectrum—the developments raise profound questions about justice, accountability, and the future of democratic institutions. Some within Trump’s base view these moves as long-overdue corrections to what they perceive as a corrupt establishment. Others, including many law enforcement professionals, see them as undermining the very foundations of the rule of law.
As the Justice Department and FBI grapple with internal upheaval and public scrutiny, the story of Jared Wise stands as a stark symbol of the new era in Washington. Whether these changes will reshape American law enforcement for the better or erode its credibility remains to be seen. But for now, the nation’s top law enforcement agencies are facing a test unlike any in recent memory—a test that will define not just their future, but the country’s as well.
