Kash Patel Fires FBI Officials Linked to Trump Documents Investigation
At least 10 FBI employees connected to an investigation into former President Donald Trump have reportedly been dismissed under the leadership of current FBI Director Kash Patel. The ousters follow revelations that the agency subpoenaed personal records of Patel and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in the years before Trump returned to office.
According to multiple reports, the dismissals are tied to the federal investigation led by former Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, which examined Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents discovered at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort after his first term. During the course of that investigation, the FBI reportedly subpoenaed phone records of both Patel and Wiles, who were private citizens at the time but close to Trump.
In a statement to Reuters, Patel criticized the FBI’s actions and framed them as evidence of government overreach by 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 said.
Trump’s federal investigations have included allegations of interfering with the 2020 presidential election and retaining classified documents after leaving office. Indictments filed in 2023 accused Trump of illegally keeping classified materials and attempting to overturn his electoral defeat. These cases were dropped after Trump’s 2024 election victory, in line with Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Patel himself played a central role in the original investigation. As a top adviser to Trump at the time, he was called to testify before a federal grand jury in 2022 regarding the unauthorized retention of government documents and was granted limited immunity for his statements.
This is not the first series of high-profile dismissals at the FBI under Patel. In September, three senior officials with decades of experience filed lawsuits claiming wrongful termination after investigating Trump. Later in November, the bureau terminated an official with 27 years of service following reports that Patel had allegedly misused a government plane for personal purposes.
The recent firings mark another significant shake-up at the FBI under Kash Patel, reflecting ongoing tensions and scrutiny surrounding the Trump-era investigations into classified documents and election-related matters.
