The F.B.I. has gathered a list of about 1,000 agents and 2,600 other probationary employees as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to pare down the federal work force.
The investigative agency has been in a tense dispute with the administration for weeks over the possibility of mass firings. The acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove III, has already demanded and received information about agents who worked on cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
But all federal agencies have been asked to provide a list of its employees still in their probationary periods. For some government workers, that means people who have been employed for less than two years; for others, it is less than a year.
The administration’s directives have been unclear about the purpose of the requests for names of probationary employees, but they appear to pave the way for possible dismissals. The administration has also asked agency leaders to provide any arguments for exempting specific probationary employees from possible firings, according to people familiar with the directives who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal government correspondence.
At the F.B.I., officials are concerned that cutting the work force by firing probationary employees would be risky and costly, since agents undergo extensive training and removing new analysts and other support personnel could have repercussions beyond the simple decline of personnel.
Natalie Bara, the president of the F.B.I. Agents Association, said the probationary employees represent roughly 10 percent of the agency’s work force, and their dismissal would reverberate widely.
Those people are “actively investigating crimes in every state and globally,” she said, adding, “Losing these agents and employees would weaken national security now and into the future.”
Generating lists of F.B.I. agents is politically and legally controversial. Some anonymous agents and the agents association went to court last week to get an order barring the administration from releasing the names of the Jan. 6 agents.
Earlier this month, Mr. Bove accused the acting leaders of the bureau of “insubordination” over the issue. More than a half dozen senior F.B.I. officials have already been pushed out, and Mr. Trump has said he intends to fire more.
