At least 10 FBI employees connected to an investigation into Donald Trump have been dismissed, following revelations that the agency subpoenaed personal records of FBI director Kash Patel and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles before Trump returned to office.
The dismissals, reported by CBS News and CNN, relate to the federal investigation led by former special counsel Jack Smith into Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago resort. During that inquiry, the FBI subpoenaed phone records of Patel and Wiles, both private citizens at the time.
In a statement to Reuters, Patel denounced the actions of the previous FBI leadership, describing the subpoenas as 'outrageous and deeply alarming' and accusing them of using 'flimsy pretexts' and burying the process in prohibited case files to evade oversight.
The development comes amid broader fallout from Smith's investigations. Smith secured indictments in 2023 accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified documents and plotting to overturn his 2020 election defeat, but dropped both cases after Trump won the 2024 election, citing justice department policy against prosecuting a sitting president. On Monday, a federal judge blocked further publication of Smith's report.
Patel had been a part of the documents investigation, testifying before a federal grand jury in 2022 and receiving limited immunity. This is not the first dismissal under his tenure: last September, three former senior officials sued Patel and the government for wrongful termination after being dismissed for investigating Trump, and in November a 27-year official was dismissed after Patel became angered over press reports about his use of a government plane.
