Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) put Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice on blast for hiring Jared Wise, who the Deep South Congressman characterizes as “a disgraced FBI agent and right-wing extremist charged with encouraging the murder of police officers.”
Thompson is reacting to reports from multiple sources, including the New York Times, that Wise has been named an advisor to Ed Martin, the attorney Trump’s DOJ has brought on as the director of the new, so-called “Weaponization Working Group” at the Justice Department.
Martin got the DOJ role after he became — as a candidate for U.S. Attorney for DC — one of the few Trump nominees whose nomination was squashed by an uncertain path to confirmation, like that of former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) who was Trump’s first choice for Bondi’s AG job.
My statement on the Trump Justice
Department Hiring January 6 Defendant and Rioter Who Encouraged the Murder of Law Enforcement pic.twitter.com/eF4Xp44OnZ— Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (@BennieGThompson) July 2, 2025
Thompson said the elevation of Wise was “not only an insult to every honorable law enforcement officer across the country — it is an insult to our democracy and all those who have fought to preserve it.”
[NOTE: Thompson served as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee during President Biden’s term, and was the chair of the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol — commonly known as the January 6th Committee. Thompson’s role on that committee, which has become enormously polarizing as MAGA continuously seeks to invalidate its findings, invites vitriol from the largely right-wing X commenters, many of whom see vindication in the Wise scenario rather than shame.]
Thompson said the Wise hire “makes it clear that political violence won’t just be excused under this administration, it will be celebrated and awarded [sic].”
Wise was employed by the FBI for more than a dozen years before his actions on January 6 led to the charges which were abandoned earlier this year after President Donald Trump‘s sweeping clemency order for nearly all Jan 6 defendants and convicts.
Wise was an FBI special agent and supervisory special agent from 2004 to 2017, as the DOJ confirmed when he was charged for Jan 6 conduct at the Capitol. (Wise had been charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors, and he had pleaded not guilty.)
The Guardian reports Wise was also an operative for the rightwing media outlet Project Veritas, where he was “assigned to infiltrate teacher unions in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Kentucky.”