The FBI, under the leadership of Kash Patel, has fired at least 10 employees who worked on the investigation into classified documents at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, according to multiple media reports.
The staffers were dismissed after Reuters reported that the bureau had obtained phone records from Patel and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in connection to the probe during the Biden administration.
“It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records — along with those of now White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight,” Patel told Reuters.
The investigation, launched in March 2022 under the direction of Special Counsel Jack Smith, focused on Trump’s handling of classified materials after leaving office in 2021 and his alleged obstruction of justice.
It culminated in an FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, during which agents recovered boxes containing materials marked top secret. The following year, Trump was hit with a 37-count indictment from Smith’s office, alleging that he, as a private citizen, willfully kept documents containing some of the country’s most sensitive secrets. In July 2024, a federal judge dismissed the case, ruling that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.
FBI Director Kash Patel fired at least 10 bureau employees tied to the Trump classified documents probe, according to reports (Reuters)
Trump has called Smith a “deranged animal” and labeled the case against him a “witch hunt.” He’s also asserted that former President Joe Biden — who was subject to a similar classified documents investigation, which yielded no criminal charges — benefited from preferential treatment.
Last year, GOP lawmakers also accused the Biden era FBI of obtaining the cellphone data of nine Republican members of Congress in connection to its probe into the Jan. 6 riot. At the time, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he had “grave concerns” about the revelation.
The Independent has reached out to the FBI for comment.
The fired FBI employees, who were let go on Wednesday, were all tied to Trump’s classified documents probe, sources told CBS News.
The FBI Agents Association, which represents both current and past agents, released a statement condemning the mass firings.
“These actions weaken the Bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilizing the workforce, undermining trust in leadership and jeopardizing the Bureau’s ability to meet its recruitment goals—ultimately putting the nation at greater risk,” the group said, according to CBS News.
Patel recently courted controversy when he traveled to Italy for the Olympics, where he was seen chugging beer with the US men’s hockey team (Social media)
It’s just the latest instance of layoffs at one of the nation’s top law enforcement agencies.
Since Trump took office last January, the bureau has purged staffers connected to probes into the president — as well as those tied to the investigation into Jan. 6 rioters.
Patel has also dismissed at least 30 agents who appeared to lack the necessary conservative bona fides.
“Some took a knee in a show of solidarity with the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests; another implemented government policy denying religious exemptions for the covid vaccine; a third displayed a gay pride flag,” The Wall Street Journal reported in November.
Patel, a former Florida public defender, has also courted controversy for using government planes for personal reasons — including, most recently, to attend the Olympics in Italy.
In a video posted online, he was seen drinking beer with the U.S. men’s hockey team in a locker room after their gold-medal victory. Pushing back against criticism, the director wrote on X that the team “invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys.”
