At least 10 FBI employees connected to an investigation into Donald Trump's handling of classified documents have been dismissed, according to reports from CBS News and CNN. The firings follow revelations that the FBI subpoenaed personal phone records of current FBI Director Kash Patel and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles before Trump returned to office.
The dismissals are linked to the federal investigation led by former special counsel Jack Smith, which examined Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after his first term. During that probe, the FBI subpoenaed records of calls made by Patel and Wiles, who were private citizens at the time.
In a statement to Reuters, Patel criticised the agency he now leads, describing the subpoenas 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.
The FBI has not yet responded to requests for comment. The dismissals are not the first under Patel's tenure; last September, three former senior officials sued Patel and the federal government for wrongful termination, claiming they were fired for investigating Trump. In November, the bureau dismissed a 27-year veteran after Patel was angered by press reports that he had used a government plane for personal travel.
