FBI Whistleblower Alleges Trump Ordered Probes of L.A. Protesters

A former FBI analyst says President Trump ordered investigations into Los Angeles-area protesters—and that she was reassigned after questioning whether the probes were legal. The allegations, made in a whistleblower complaint, are denied by the White House and Los Angeles’s top federal prosecutor.

Jill Fields, a former supervisory intelligence analyst in the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, alleges that Trump directed the FBI to investigate people protesting immigration enforcement, including in Alhambra. She also says other FBI leaders urged additional investigations and that personnel and resources were diverted to the work.

Sen. Alex Padilla, whose office received a copy of the complaint, made it public Tuesday. Padilla serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee and is the top Democrat on its border security and immigration subcommittee. The complaint concerns the administration’s response to early-2025 protests against the deployment of ICE agents.

Fields alleges that she was reassigned after objecting to the legality of the investigations. The complaint, as described in the available material, does not establish what specific probes were opened, what evidence supported them, or whether Trump personally ordered them. No outcome of the alleged investigations is specified.

The White House called the allegations “false” and said the “first amendment does not protect violent rioting.” The top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles also denied them. Those denials contest the complaint’s claims; the information made public so far does not resolve the dispute.

If substantiated, the allegations would raise questions about the use of federal investigative resources in response to protest activity and about whether an analyst faced retaliation for raising legal concerns. Those are serious implications, not established findings. The central issue now is corroboration: what records, testimony or other evidence can confirm or refute Fields’ account?

Padilla’s disclosure gives Senate Judiciary members a formal complaint to pursue, but the available information does not say whether the committee will seek FBI records or testimony from Fields and bureau leaders. It also leaves unanswered what became of the investigations and Fields’ reassignment.

- [latimes.com](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2026-10-06/fbi-whistleblower-alleges-trump-ordered-investigations-of-l-a-area-immigration-protesters) - [theguardian.com](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/06/trump-fbi-ice-la-protesters) - [commondreams.org](https://www.commondreams.org/news/fbi-ice-whistleblower-complaint)