A Biden-appointed federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by FBI agents attempting to block the Trump administration from obtaining a list of bureau employees who worked on the controversial January 6 investigations — a move that could clear the way for long-overdue transparency and accountability inside the agency.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, appointed by former President Joe Biden, sided with the administration’s request to throw out the case, which agents filed earlier this year in a bid to shield thousands of names from disclosure. The Justice Department, under Principal Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove — tapped by President Donald J. Trump for a lifetime appointment to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals — has sought the list as part of a sweeping review of the bureau’s conduct in the politically charged prosecutions.

“Plaintiffs filed these cases in a whirlwind of chaos and fear,” Cobb wrote, noting that “some former January 6 defendants, now pardoned and at large, called for FBI agents to be doxed (or worse).” Cobb acknowledged that tensions have cooled since the suit began but ultimately found no proof that the administration intends to imminently expose the agents’ identities.

The agents, backed by the FBI Agents Association, filed the lawsuit in February after eight senior career officials were fired and Bove formally requested the list. Cobb noted that jurisdictional discovery “revealed no evidence that Defendants are on the verge of disclosing Plaintiffs’ identities, nor have Plaintiffs plausibly alleged that such a disclosure is imminent.”

Attorneys for the agents warned they are prepared to return to court if the government backtracks on assurances. “The Court acknowledged that the disclosure of agents’ names would endanger them and accepted the Government’s claims that it would not do so. We stand ready to return to Court immediately if the Government does not live up to its obligations,” attorneys Margaret Donovan and Chris Mattei said.

Bove has not denied that the list will be used to scrutinize the work of every agent involved in Jan. 6 cases and has not ruled out disciplinary action. Agents have already been ordered to complete questionnaires detailing their roles in the years-long inquiry. “No FBI employee who simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner with respect to January 6 investigations is at risk of termination or other penalties,” Bove insisted.

The ruling comes just days after FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced the dismantling of a “sophisticated” Chinese spy ring operating on U.S. soil — a major counterintelligence victory that included arrests in San Francisco, Houston, Portland, and San Diego. According to Bongino, the operation involved foreign agents working to recruit American service members to betray their country, steal defense secrets, and smuggle advanced military technology to Beijing.

“This is your FBI, and you deserve to know about the work we’re doing every day to keep our country and citizens safe,” Bongino said on X.

The bust follows a string of recent cases in which U.S. Army soldiers were caught funneling sensitive information to the Chinese Communist Party in what Bongino described as “treason-adjacent espionage.” Since January 2025, the FBI has arrested 51 foreign intelligence operatives from hostile nations — including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea — on charges ranging from economic espionage to sanctions evasion and biological material smuggling.

With nearly 5,000 active counterintelligence investigations and over 800 new cases opened this year alone, the FBI’s national security mission is ramping up — even as the Trump administration continues to push for a full reckoning over how the bureau conducted itself during the January 6 era.