Fbi Faces Scrutiny After Roughly 10 Agents Who Worked on Trump Documents Probe Are Fired
The fbi has fired roughly 10 members who participated in the probe into Donald Trump's handling of classified documents, a move that followed public claims that federal agents subpoenaed the phone records of Kash Patel and Susie Wiles when they were private citizens.
Fbi agents tied to the Mar-a-Lago documents case were dismissed
The terminations, announced on Wednesday, affected staffers who all participated in the classified documents investigation tied to Trump bringing material back to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. The fbi staffers who were terminated all worked on that documents case, which was one of two federal investigations led by Special Counsel Jack Smith after Trump left the White House in 2021.
Subpoenas for Patel and Wiles cited amid firings
Shortly before the firings were announced, Kash Patel said that federal agents subpoenaed his phone records when he was a private citizen during the documents investigation; Susie Wiles, now White House chief of staff, said her phone records had also been subpoenaed when she was a private citizen as part of the same inquiry. Patel did not offer evidence that the fired employees had engaged in wrongdoing.
Legal aftermath and recent court rulings
Jack Smith's work produced an indictment in 2023 that charged Trump and two associates in the classified documents matter. In 2024 a federal judge in Florida dropped the case against Trump after finding Smith was unlawfully appointed, and this year a federal appeals court in Georgia dropped the case against the last two defendants at the request of the justice department. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, the justice department and the fbi have taken disciplinary actions that included firing employees who had participated in federal investigations against him.
An advocacy group representing current and former bureau employees condemned the latest 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 FBI Agents Association said.
The justice department has also pursued other legal actions connected to people who were politically prominent during Trump's first term, including attempts to pursue charges related to a former FBI director and a state attorney general who led a civil fraud suit against Trump.
No next steps for the dismissed agents were detailed in the available account, and officials did not set out a public schedule for further personnel actions tied to the investigations. The fbi was contacted for comment on the firings.
