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Head of FBI Washington Field Office is forced out

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Head of FBI Washington Field Office is forced out


WASHINGTON — David Sundberg, the assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, was notified Thursday that he was going to lose his job and is preparing to leave the bureau, according to two senior law enforcement sources — the latest step in an unprecedented purge of top executives at FBI headquarters as well as leadership in FBI field offices across the country.

Sundberg is the highest-ranking field agent so far to be fired from the FBI in Trump’s second term.

Sundberg, who joined the FBI in 2002, was put in charge of the Washington Field Office by then-FBI Director Christopher Wray in December 2022. It is one of the highest-profile positions an agent can achieve in the field at the FBI.

Special agents from the Washington Field Office were heavily involved in former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations of now-President Donald Trump, as well as the sprawling investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol that resulted in criminal charges against hundreds.

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News of Sundberg’s departure comes amid a broader slate of firings hitting leadership at the bureau. NBC News reported that as many as eight senior executives at FBI headquarters have been told to resign or be fired. New faces are coming in, too, with a Republican Capitol Hill staffer as well as an affiliate of Elon Musk have taken on leadership roles within bureau headquarters.

It’s part of a broader effort to reshape the federal workforce, which has hit the upper levels of the Justice Department particularly hard in recent days.

Sundberg was in charge of nearly 1,600 employees at the Washington Field Office, leading FBI operations across Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia, including high-profile cases involving terrorism and public corruption, like the Trump investigations.

Sundberg inherited the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigation, as well as the investigation into the pipe bombs left near the Republican and Democratic party headquarters buildings the night of Jan. 5, 2021, which still remains unresolved. Sundberg also served as the special agent in charge of the New Haven Field Office in 2020 and led the tactical efforts across the Department of Justice for the presidential inauguration in January 2021.

Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack, and the Trump administration got rid of the FBI’s Capitol Violence website, which featured images of rioters who assaulted law enforcement officers but were never arrested. The new administration also shut down the section of the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office that had been investigating the riot.

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GoLocalProv | News | Shekarchi & Ruggerio Oversight on Washington Bridge – No Outside Expert, Witnesses Will Not Be Sworn

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GoLocalProv | News | Shekarchi & Ruggerio Oversight on Washington Bridge – No Outside Expert, Witnesses Will Not Be Sworn


Legislative leaders Speaker Joe Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio announced this week that the General Assembly will be launching oversight hearings into the failed Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) Washington Bridge.



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Freezing hikers stuck in waist-deep snow rescued during Mount Washington whiteout

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Freezing hikers stuck in waist-deep snow rescued during Mount Washington whiteout


The two friends had hiked New Hampshire’s challenging Mount Washington trail a month ago. They returned and did it again Sunday after trekking through neighboring peaks in the White Mountains. Both veteran hikers, the women were an hour behind schedule on their descent and losing daylight, but they had warm clothing, headlamps and other gear.

Then the wind kicked in. The temperature dropped. They were in waist-deep snow and whiteout conditions. They were lost on the tallest mountain in the Northeast, known for its extreme, changeable weather.

“That snow has nothing to stick to,” said Amy Cotter, a weather observer and education specialist with the Mount Washington Observatory at the peak at 6,288 feet (1,916 meters). “That snow gets whipped up very easily.”

One of Kathyrn McKee’s snowshoes became stuck in a “spruce trap,” a hole created in the snow underneath trees.

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“It took like 20 minutes to get out of that,” she recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. “And that kept happening. And so we got to a point where we were literally, like crawling on our bellies to try to get to the next point and just struggling so much that it wasn’t working.”

After about an hour of trying to rescue themselves, McKee, 51, of Southborough, Massachusetts, and Beata LeLacheur, 54, of Westborough, Massachusetts, called 911. They reached New Hampshire Fish and Game conservation officers, who plotted their GPS coordinates and directed them toward the trail — just 34 feet (10 meters) away.

It didn’t work.

“They ended up on the trail several times but could not follow it as it had been completely erased by wind and snow,” said Sgt. Matthew Holmes of the Fish and Game Department. After multiple attempts trying to locate the trail and several phone calls starting around 6 p.m., “the two needed to huddle up in the snow to keep warm and await assistance,” he said.

The temperature at the summit was 2 degrees below zero (minus 19 Celsius), with sustained winds of 50 to 60 mph (80 to 96 kph) at the time, Holmes said.

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McKee and LeLacheur were stuck at an elevation of about 5,000 feet (1,524 meters).

McKee said she was wearing gloves with liners, but still lost the use of her hands due to the cold.

“I went into my first aid kid to grab the emergency blanket and extra hand warmers,” she said. “I couldn’t open the chest because my hands were frozen.”

The two sat there with the wind blowing on them for about six hours.

“I was terrified that my friend may pass away in front of me and, you know, or I might pass away, “ McKee said. ”And how did we get here? So, you do think about that, but you can’t stay in that thought process because that’s not going to get you out. So we just kept focusing on what is the next thing we can do.”

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McKee said they grabbed a bag and used it as a wind guard. She was wrapped in a covering used over sleeping mats and bags.

“I was buried in snow at that point, so it was basically an insulator. So that kind of helped. But it also meant that I was immobile, I wasn’t really moving,” she said.

By late Sunday, the Mount Washington State Park snowcat, a ski resort groomer-type vehicle, started up the mountain’s auto road with nine rescuers and arrived at the summit just before midnight. Crews snowshoed their way through the wind-blown snow toward the trail. They approached the hikers’ last known location at 1:20 a.m. Monday, but had not yet made contact.

“The only way to locate the trail was through GPS navigation, and the going was slow due to the tremendous effort required to break trail in the deep snow,” Holmes said.

McKee and LeLacheur were found a half-hour later. They had suffered frostbite, mostly to their hands.

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Crews set up emergency shelters for them, and by 3 a.m. Monday, they were able to move on their own. By 4:15 a.m., the rescuers and hikers trekked down to the base station of the Cog Railway, a locomotive-led train that climbs to the mountain peak.

Holmes said both women were prepared for a winter hike, had emergency gear and had winter hiking experience. But they didn’t expect they would lose the trial. McKee and LeLacheur had received training on hikes from the Appalachian Mountain Club’s chapter in Worcester, Massachusetts.

“We feel really awful about having to make that (911) call, but it did save our lives, and we’re eternally grateful,” McKee said of their rescuers.

Both said they’d go out hiking again in the White Mountains and add a small pop-up tent to their gear in case they need to seek shelter.

“You either get back on the horse, or you don’t,” McKee said. “I’m not going to to have a problem to get back on the horse. I’m going to do it as safe as I can. But I recognize there are risks in what we do.”

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Commanders sign veteran offensive lineman to futures contract

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Commanders sign veteran offensive lineman to futures contract


The Washington Commanders are in the offseason, which means their roster can go from 53 to 90 players.

This means the team has signed a bunch of their practice squad players to futures contracts, giving them a spot in training camp with the Commanders later in the year.

The Commanders signed one notable player to a deal in veteran offensive lineman Bobby Hart.

READ MORE: Commanders named a top landing spot for Super Bowl champion WR Cooper Kupp

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Bills offensive lineman Bobby Hart shoots up into his blocking stance during drills

Bills offensive lineman Bobby Hart shoots up into his blocking stance during drills on day eight of the Buffalo Bills training camp at St John Fisher University in Rochester Tuesday, August 2, 2022.

Sd 080222 Bills Camp 26 Spts / Shawn Dowd / USA TODAY NETWORK

Hart, 30, was a seventh-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft by the New York Giants, where he spent the first three years of his career.

Then, he joined the Cincinnati Bengals in free agency and played all but two games with the team over a three-year span from 2018-20.

Since then, Hart has become a bit of a journeyman in the NFL, bouncing around practice squads and active rosters with the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, Tennessee Titans and Detroit Lions.

He last played an NFL snap in 2022 when he appeared in 15 games with the Bills.

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Hart joined the Commanders in late October, but never was activated from the practice squad. Now, he will compete to earn a spot on the 53-man roster at the end of training camp.

READ MORE: Best and worst graded 2024 Washington Commanders offensive players

Stick with CommanderGameday and the Locked On Commanders podcast for more FREE coverage of the Washington Commanders throughout the 2024 season.

• Ravens fan pleads guilty following assault of Commanders fans and escapes jail time

• Commanders linked to Seahawks’ star DK Metcalf in trade idea

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• Commanders could get better weapons for Jayden Daniels this offseason

• Jaguars WR named trade target for Commanders



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