Hannah Rosen

I try not to talk to my former colleagues about

what's going on because I can't imagine how stressful it is for them.

You know, Russell Voight said he wanted to traumatize the federal workforce.

They're also being traumatized on a daily basis.

So think back to when you started the project.

What did you expect going into it?

So what surprised you going through this?

This is Michael Feinberg.

He worked at the FBI for 16 years.

Feinberg decided to be an FBI agent after he was at his grandfather's 90th birthday and he overheard him talking to his younger brother.

Feinberg joined the FBI, and his career was a perfect example of what Frank discovered about the investment in human capital.

Legal training, lessons on how to interrogate people.

He went from speaking not a word of the language to being able to conduct interviews and interrogations.

For the government, the investments in Feinberg were paying off.

He was on a path to become the FBI's top Chinese counterintelligence investigator.

He'd already worked on high-profile cases.

The biggest one, which you might have heard of, was against the Chinese telecom company, Huawei.

The end for Feinberg came on May 31st in a way that's become a pattern for this administration, a loyalty test.

After the break, we talk to two more federal workers.

One reminds us of why the civil service existed in the first place, and the other of the civil service in its heyday.