Special Tactical Unit

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Driscoll joined the FBI in 2007 as a special agent, first assigned to the New York field office where he worked organized crime and joined the regional SWAT team. In 2011, he was selected for the Hostage Rescue Team, serving in Blue Squadron. He returned to New York in 2019 as a supervisory special agent, leading joint task forces on violent crimes, child exploitation, and human trafficking. In 2020, he was transferred to the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force to lead the North Africa international terrorism investigations squad. He later became assistant special agent in charge of the Extraterritorial Terrorism Branch. In 2022, he was promoted to head of the Hostage Rescue Team and tactical section chief of the Critical Incident Response Group. As of July 2025, following his brief tenure as Acting Director, Driscoll serves as an Assistant Director of the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG).

In Their Own Story

Following the 2024 presidential election, the Trump transition team asked Driscoll to serve as Deputy Director of the FBI underneath Robert Kissane as acting director. But after the inauguration in January 2025, Driscoll became acting director because the White House website 'incorrectly listed' him as acting director and Kissane as deputy director. 'Instead of fixing the error, the pair swapped their temporary FBI roles,' according to The Wall Street Journal. On January 31, 2025, as part of a planned mass termination of federal law enforcement officials, the FBI under Driscoll was ordered to fire eight senior executives and compile a list of potentially thousands of other employees involved in investigations stemming from the January 6 United States Capitol attack. Driscoll said the list included himself and acting deputy director Kissane. The order came from Emil Bove, a former criminal defense attorney for Trump who became acting Deputy Attorney General. Driscoll refused to endorse the effort to purge agents as political retribution and pushed back. He was fired by President Trump on August 7, 2025. A month later, Driscoll and two other former senior FBI officials filed a lawsuit, accusing Trump administration officials of wrongful dismissal in an effort to diminish the level of independence possessed by the agency.

Reader's Guide

Driscoll's career shows a path from special agent to acting director, then to firing and a lawsuit. He joined the FBI in 2007 after earning a bachelor's degree in English from Villanova University and a master's degree in public policy and international relations from Pepperdine University. Prior to the FBI, he was a special agent at NCIS. His early FBI work included organized crime and SWAT in New York, then selection for the Hostage Rescue Team in 2011. He later led joint task forces on violent crimes, child exploitation, and human trafficking, then the North Africa international terrorism squad. By 2022, he headed the Hostage Rescue Team and was tactical section chief of CIRG. As acting director from January 20 to February 21, 2025, he faced the order to fire eight senior executives and compile a list of thousands of employees tied to January 6 investigations. He refused, was fired on August 7, 2025, and filed a lawsuit a month later with two other former senior FBI officials.

Did You Know?

• Driscoll served as acting FBI director from January 20 to February 21, 2025, after the White House website incorrectly listed him in that role and he swapped with Robert Kissane instead of fixing the error.
• He was a recipient of both the FBI Medal of Valor and the FBI Shield of Bravery.
• In 2013, Driscoll's Hostage Rescue Team unit saved a five-year-old boy taken hostage in a bunker in Alabama.
• Driscoll was fired by President Trump on August 7, 2025, after refusing to endorse a purge of agents involved in January 6 investigations.