Whistleblower alleges Trump directed FBI to investigate LA anti-ICE protesters

Complaint says FBI continued probe after analysts found protests constitutionally protected

A former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst alleges in a whistleblower complaint that President Donald Trump directed the bureau to investigate anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, overriding analysts’ finding that the demonstrations were constitutionally protected, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by NBC News and reviewed by The Guardian.

The complaint was filed by Jill Fields, who worked in the FBI’s Los Angeles field office and joined the bureau in May 2016. She made the complaint following the federal response to anti-ICE protests around federal buildings and in residential areas in Los Angeles in February 2025, according to The Guardian and NBC.

Fields alleges that Emil Bove, then the acting deputy attorney general, told Akil Davis, the head of the Los Angeles field office, to open an investigation into protesters’ activities outside federal buildings, even though the demonstrations were protected free speech and several FBI employees in the field office expressed concern about the legality of the requests.

The complaint also alleges that Trump reportedly viewed a TikTok video of protesters in Alhambra, California, who alerted neighbors about the presence of federal immigration officers and advised them of their legal rights. According to Fields, the White House then instructed Patel to direct the Los Angeles field office to initiate an investigation into those demonstrating in the video because the president “was angry about the incident.”

Despite members of Fields’ team determining that the protesters’ actions were constitutionally protected and that there was insufficient evidence, a colleague told Fields that “the president wants this investigation,” the complaint alleges. Fields says that even though her supervisor acknowledged the investigation was unconstitutional, the directive still had to be followed.

Fields alleges that a “dedicated immigration squad” of 10 agents was created to carry out the requests, with some agents taken off active cartel cases. She says she questioned the directive’s “operational logic,” but her supervisor described the move as “optics” designed to “make a show for the president.”

Fields says she was not aware of any “actual or potential national security threat, federal criminal activity, or vulnerability” that would have warranted conducting assessments or opening investigations into anti-ICE and Customs and Border Protection protesters at the time. She resigned from the bureau last year after she was removed from overseeing several programs and believes her diminished role was the result of her objections to the protest-related investigations, according to the complaint.

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis called the allegations “false” in a statement to The Guardian. “The first amendment does not protect violent rioting, obstructing law enforcement, and assaulting law enforcement,” Bis said. “Assaulting and obstructing law enforcement is a crime. This administration has been clear: anyone who assaults or obstructs law enforcement will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The FBI and Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Guardian’s request for comment.

Senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who serves on the Senate judiciary committee and as the top Democrat on the border security and immigration subcommittee, said his office had received a copy of the complaint. “These allegations are deeply alarming,” Padilla said in a statement. “Using the FBI to target Americans for exercising their first amendment rights directly undermines our nation’s foundational values. I won’t rest until we get answers.”

In a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and Patel, Padilla asked dozens of questions about the reported investigations, including whether they resulted in arrests, how many directives of this kind the Justice Department has received from the president, and how many investigations are still open.

NBC first reported the allegations after viewing a copy of the disclosure.