An investigation has been carried out as at least 10 FBI employees connected to the investigation of Donald Trump have reportedly been dismissed, following revelations that the agency subpoenaed personal records of current FBI director Kash Patel and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in the years before Trump returned to office. The move is widely seen as the recent intensification in a systematic purge of officials who participated in investigations into Trump or his inner circle.
The federal investigation led by former Justice Department Special counsel Jack Smith focused on Trump’s mishandling of classified documents found at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort after his first term.
In line with recent statements to Reuters, Patel rebuked the agency he heads and repeated claims that the actions are evidence of government overreach by the Biden administration.
In this connection, Patel said: “ It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership is secretly subpoenaed my own phone records-along with those of now White House chief of staff Susie Wiles-using flimsy protests and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designated to evade all oversight.”
In addition to his unauthorized retention of national defense information, Trump was also under federal investigations for allegedly interfering with the 2020 presidential election. On Monday, a federal judge permanently blocked the publication of Jack Smith’s final report, which detailed the findings of his investigations.
At present, it is crystal clear that Patel was a central figure in the documents investigations. As a top advisor to Trump at the time, he was compelled to testify before a federal grand jury in Washington in 2022 regarding the unauthorized retention of the government documents.
According to the Guardian, this is not the first public firing to occur at the FBI under Patel’s tenure. Last September, three former senior officials with decades of service sued Patel and the federal government for wrongful termination, alleging they were fired for investigating Trump.
While dozens of senior leaders and agents have now been removed or forced into retirement, the FBI is undergoing its most notable transformation in decades. In November, the bureau fired an official with 27 years of service after Patel became incensed by media coverage alleging that he had used a government plane for personal use.
