The DEI office closed effective December 2024, the agency told Fox News Digital.
“In recent weeks, the FBI took steps to close the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, effective by December 2024,” it said.
The agency did not say why it closed the office. FBI Director Christopher Wray announced he would resign by the time of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, Jan. 20. Trump has tapped Kash Patel to replace him.
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion was created in 2012 “to provide guidance and implement programs that promote a diverse and inclusive workplace that allows all employees to succeed and advance,” according to the FBI website.
Wray, who has served as director since 2017, has a quote on the page endorsing the office.
“One of the FBI’s priority initiatives is to build a high-performing, diverse, and inclusive workforce,” he said. “We all make better decisions when we have the benefit of different perspectives.”
Republicans in Congress have generally opposed DEI practices, which prioritize hiring people from many different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) sent a letter to Wray in January displaying her concern about the office after the New Year’s attack on New Orleans’s Bourbon Street.
She said the “radical” DEI practices “endangered” the public following the attack.
“I am deeply concerned that—under your leadership—the Bureau has prioritized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives over its core mission of protecting the American people,” she said.
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President Joe Biden signed an executive order months into his presidency “on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce.”
The order established that the federal government “must be a model for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, where all employees are treated with dignity and respect.”
