Former SC FBI official promoted to Washington fired for Jan. 6 work, reports say

Former top South Carolina FBI official Steven Jensen, who was promoted to lead the prestigious Washington field office in March, was fired this week because of his work investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to multiple news reports.

Jensen was fired because he participated in and helped lead investigations into the thousands of people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to reports by CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The news organizations said that Jensen was caught up in the recent purging of numerous FBI agents and Department of Justice prosecutors who had first-hand knowledge of the cases involving the arrest and prosecution of hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants who attacked the Capitol, injuring more than 100 police officers.

By all accounts, Jensen was a well-regarded agent with a variety of expertises who moved up through the ranks after joining the FBI in 2006 and spending five years in the New York City field office.

Before coming to Columbia in 2023 to lead South Carolina’s contingent of FBI agents, analysts and staff, he had held top positions at the FBI Academy in Quantico, the Chicago field office, the Washington field office and the Jackson Mississippi field office. His experience includes work in national security, health care fraud and counterterrorism, according to an FBI press release in April when he was promoted to Washington.

Since he was fired after serving 19 years and four months (according to his Linked In profile), he won’t be eligible for an FBI pension, which comes after serving 20 years, federal officials familiar with the FBI told The State.

Both the S.C. FBI office and the FBI national press office declined to answer any questions about Jensen.

The New York Times reported that Jensen “had been a target of conservatives because in overseeing the bureau’s domestic terrorism operations section at the time, he played a key role in responding to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.”

The FBI Agents Association, a 14,000-member group of current and former agents, issued a statement Thursday that said in part it is “deeply concerned by reports that FBI Special Agents — case agents and senior leaders alike — are going to be summarily fired without due process for doing their jobs investigating potential federal crimes.

“Agents are not given the option to pick and choose their cases, and these Agents carried out their assignments with professionalism and integrity. Most importantly, they followed the law,” the association said. .

“If these Agents are fired without due process, it makes the American people less safe. Agents need to be focused on their work and not on potentially being illegally fired based on their assignments,” the association said.

The Jan. 6 riots comprise one of the most controversial chapters of Trump’s political life. After being defeated by former President Joe Biden in the November 2020 election, Trump continued to tell his followers without evidence that he had won the election.

However, in the late fall and early winter of 2020, Trump’s allies lost some 60 lawsuits alleging election fraud in swing states because they could produce no evidence there was fraud massive enough to have changed election results. And Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr, said publicly there was no evidence of significant voter fraud.

Nonetheless, in a rally speech, Trump urged his followers to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and “fight like hell” to disrupt a formal certification process by a joint session of the House and Senate. Trump also told his followers, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” Shortly after noon that day, hundreds of Trump supporters broke into the Capitol and fought with police, injuring some 140 officers. Members of the House and Senate fled the Capitol. They returned later that day to certify Biden’s election.

Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department and the FBI began gathering evidence in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. It became what they called their biggest criminal investigation in history.

Eventually, 1,583 defendants were charged with federal crimes in the attack on the Capitol, including 34 people from South Carolina. Approximately 600 people were charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement agents or officers or obstructing those officers during a civil disorder. Others who did not commit violent access were charged with trespassing.

Of those, approximately 1,000 pleaded guilty and about 220 were found guilty by a jury, according the Justice Department statistics.

On taking office, Trump issued pardons to people convicted of or facing charges in the Jan. 6 riot, including all 34 people from South Carolina. Of those 34, seven had been convicted or accused of attacking police. Another 11 had been convicted or accused of aggressive conduct that stopped short of attacking an officer but in some cases included damaging property.

Thousands of FBI agents across the nation were involved in the investigation into the Jan. 6 riot defendants. Many participated in a limited fashion, being part of teams that arrested the defendants at their homes.

Evidence against the defendants often included surveillance camera footage, GPS cellphone locators and statements from the attackers themselves. Many were turned in by friends, family members or co-workers.

During Jensen’s stay in South Carolina as top FBI agent, he participated in various press conferences marking key arrests or Bureau milestones.

One milestone was the November 2023 dedication of the FBI’s new multimillion dollar sprawling steel and concrete state headquarters in Lexington County which, Jensen told an audience that included former FBI director Christopher Wray, represented a “spirit of collaboration... it’s a hub where local, state and federal agencies converge and share intelligence, expertise and resources to protect South Carolinians,”

News accounts Thursday said Jensen sent emails to his colleagues notifying them of his ouster. He said he intended to meet “this challenge like any other I have faced in this organization, with professionalism, integrity and dignity.”

This story was originally published August 8, 2025 at 9:34 AM.