NEW YORK (AP) — An FBI agent dragged a pedestrian across a snowy sidewalk, left him on a bench and sped away in his government-issued car after hitting and severely injuring him while driving the wrong way down a busy New York City street, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Andrew Reyes, 30, blew through a red light and struck the man as he was crossing the street on Feb. 3 in Brooklyn, prosecutors said. He later lied to investigators about it, denying that he'd ever hit a person with his FBI vehicle and not reported it.
Through his lawyer, Reyes pleaded not guilty to charges of willfully depriving an individual of his constitutional rights while acting under color of law and making false statements. He was released on a $100,000 bond co-signed by his parents, whom he lives with.
If convicted, Reyes faces up to 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors had sought to have Reyes ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation, citing the alleged cover-up attempt and an alarming comment he made about a gun during a law enforcement interview, but a judge said one wasn't warranted.
Reyes, who is no longer with the FBI, teared up as his parents spoke to the judge at his arraignment. His lawyer, Nora Hirozawa, handed him tissues and placed a hand on his back to comfort him. He is due back in court on Dec. 2. The man he's accused of hitting wasn't in court for the arraignment. He has not been publicly identified.
Reyes had his car’s emergency lights activated when he hit the pedestrian as he sped against traffic on six-lane Ocean Parkway south of Prospect Park, prosecutors said. He then got out of the car, dragged the unconscious man out of the street and placed the man and his bag on a bench before fleeing the scene, prosecutors said.
Interviewed on May 1 by the Justice Department Inspector General’s office, Reyes denied involvement in any hit-and-run, prosecutors said. Toward the end of questioning, Reyes asked what an investigator would do if he grabbed the investigator's gun, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gilbert Rein told Magistrate Judge Clay Kaminsky.
“Just out of the blue?” Kaminsky asked.
“Yes, unprompted,” Rein said.
Hirozawa said she hadn’t reviewed a recording of the interview but characterized Reyes' gun remark as an “offhand” comment, albeit a “very odd” one. Kaminsky agreed that the comment was odd but declined to add a mental health evaluation to bail conditions that require Reyes to surrender his passport and limit travel to New York and New Jersey.
Reyes was arrested Thursday morning, prosecutors said. He was brought into court from a holding area in an untucked button-down shirt and Under Armour jogging pants.
While local prosecutors typically handle alleged hit-and-runs, Reyes’ role as an FBI agent, use of a government vehicle and alleged lying to Justice Department investigators led to the case being tried in federal court rather than state court.
Reyes, clutching his release paperwork, declined to comment as he left court with his lawyer and parents.
Hirozawa said in court that Reyes worked for the agency for more than nine years. His indictment said he became a special agent in 2023. Since leaving the agency, he has been working at a home remodeling business, Hirozawa said.
In response to questions about Reyes, the FBI said it was made aware of his alleged criminal conduct in April and promptly terminated his employment.
“This employee demonstrated an utter disregard for human life and the rule of law and did not uphold the values of this organization and all for which we stand,” the FBI's New York field office said in a statement. “We moved quickly to ensure their immediate dismissal and continue to fully cooperate with this investigation."
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said Reyes' alleged conduct “demonstrated a shocking disregard for human life and his sworn oath to uphold the law.”
The charges against him “send the clear message that no one is above the law and those who abuse their position of trust and deprive citizens of their constitutional rights will be prosecuted,” Nocella said in a statement.
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Weber reported from Los Angeles.
Former FBI agent Andrew Reyes, right, and his lawyer Nora Hirozawa leave federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael R. Sisak) Photo taken with a smartphone
Former FBI agent Andrew Reyes, right, and his lawyer Nora Hirozawa leave federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael R. Sisak) Photo taken with a smartphone
WASHINGTON (AP) — Harmeet Dhillon, a conservative attorney who oversaw a radical reshaping of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, celebrated the mass departures of career lawyers and spearheaded sweeping investigations into elite universities, said Thursday that she had resigned from her post.
Dhillon had been a powerful and divisive figure inside President Donald Trump’s Justice Department since her confirmation last year as assistant attorney general, where she dramatically changed the direction of a division created during the country’s Civil Rights Movement to protect the rights of minorities.
“We ushered in the downfall of illegal DEI, we fought to protect women and girls’ sports, and so much more," Dhillon said in a social media post announcing her departure, using the acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion. She called serving in the position “the honor of a lifetime.”
Though the resignation was announced on the heels of midterm elections in which Democrats swept the House and Senate in a startling rebuke of Trump, Dhillon said in an interview with Fox News Digital that she had made the decision to depart weeks earlier but was asked by the White House to remain in her post until after the elections. She said she wanted to return to the private sector and had not been asked to resign.
“My decision, my choice,” she said.
As leader of the division, Dhillon drew fierce criticism from former Justice Department attorneys who accused her of abandoning its traditional civil rights enforcement mission in favor of conservative causes. More than three quarters of the unit's workforce at the beginning of Trump's second term have left — a move Dhillon has called the “biggest single personnel self-purge in DOJ history.”
She accused the past administration of pursuing a misguided liberal agenda and welcomed the departures of attorneys not aligned with the Trump administration's priorities, saying in an interview last year with conservative pundit Glenn Beck that “the job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws — not woke ideology.”
During her tenure, the Civil Rights Division scrapped police reform settlements and investigations and launched probes into universities the Trump administration saw as improperly prioritizing diversity and inclusion, discriminating against white applicants in the admissions process and failing to crack down on antisemitic conduct on campus.
Her pressure campaign against schools led to numerous settlements, and in one case, the resignation of the president of the University of Virginia. She also led an effort to pressure states to turn over detailed voter records despite repeated court losses.
Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in a social media post announcing Dhillon’s departure that she had led the division with “conviction” and “defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favor.”
“The Department is grateful for her dedicated public service, and we wish her every success in her future endeavors,” Blanche wrote.
But Stacey Young, a former Civil Rights Division attorney who now leads a network of Justice Department alumni, called her “the most destructive, lawless and hateful” head of the division in department history.
“Americans’ civil rights don’t enforce themselves. For almost 70 years, the Civil Rights Division brought to fruition the civil rights laws that Americans demanded," Young said in an emailed statement Thursday. "Dhillon decimated it.”
Dhillon, who was born in India and immigrated with her Sikh family to the United States as a child, was a prominent figure in conservative legal and political circles well before being tapped to her Justice Department position.
As a California lawyer, she was involved in numerous high-profile causes and legal fights, including challenging that state's stay-at-home order during the coronavirus pandemic and filing a lawsuit that accused the state of failing to verify citizenship for voter registration.
She launched a bid to become chair of the Republican National Committee but lost in January 2023 to Ronna McDaniel in a race that exposed fierce internal divisions in the party.
Dhillon and her law firm also represented Trump himself as a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol issued a subpoena for his testimony. The panel ultimately abandoned that effort and wrapped up its work without forcing the issue, prompting Dhillon to boast on the social media platform X that the committee had “waved the white flag.”
FILE - Harmeet Dhillon speaks with a member of the audience after testifying at a House Committee on House Administration hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
