Following a string of major U.S. companies, including Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, backing away from DEI policies, the FBI announced without explanation on Thursday that it had closed the agency’s DEI department in December. 

Trump called on the FBI not to destroy any data associated with the department and implied that the decision to close DEI operations shortly before he became president indicated it may have had something to hide. 

“We demand that the FBI preserve and retain all records, documents, and information on the now closing DEI Office — Never should have been opened and, if it was, should have closed long ago,” he said in a post to Truth Social. “Why is it that they’re closing one day before the Inauguration of a new Administration? The reason is, CORRUPTION!”

The FBI’s DEI initiative has long been criticized by Republicans over concerns it has caused one of the country’s most powerful intelligence agencies to “abandon its core principle of attracting the most-qualified candidates and instead hire and advance employees based on gender/sexual orientation and race.”

In May, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) opened an inquiry into the DEI office, arguing that since the initiative was created in 2021, “the FBI has struggled with attracting enough qualified applicants from all desired target groups to sustain its mission.” 

Meanwhile, Trump and Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to head the FBI, have often accused the federal agency of being politically compromised and entrenched in a system of extreme partisanship and bias. 

During a September interview on the Shawn Ryan Show, Patel called for the creation of “a 24/7 declassification office” at the FBI, saying the system has been “over-abused” by “corrupt officials in government to hide the truth and enact more corrupt activities.”

After Trump won a second term in November and announced plans to change leadership at the FBI, the head of the agency, Christopher Wray, announced he would step down three years early.