The FBI has fired at least 10 agents and support staff over allegations that they obtained phone records connected to FBI Director Kash Patel and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles as part of the investigation into Donald Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, four people briefed on the matter told MS NOW.
An FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the terminations.
In a statement widely circulating online, Patel called it “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.”
The FBI did not make public any evidence to buttress the claim, though toll records — which list the phone numbers called and the times and durations of those calls, but not their content — are routinely and legally obtained in a criminal investigation.
As part of the Trump classified documents probe, the Justice Department and FBI investigated Patel’s public claim that Trump, while president, had declassified large numbers of records en masse, and that therefore no laws had been broken when the documents were transferred to Mar-a-Lago.
Patel ultimately testified before a grand jury under a grant of immunity, and investigators concluded the records had not been declassified, court documents show.
The FBI also looked into an allegation that Trump had shown a highly classified document to Wiles while traveling with her on a private plane after he left the White House in 2021, according to multiple former officials and public records. The firings were the latest in an ongoing purge by Patel of FBI employees who participated in investigations of Trump or otherwise have displeased the White House. They came as Patel is under fire for his use of the FBI jet, including a trip to Milan last week where he watched the U.S. men’s hockey team win the gold medal at the Winter Olympics and was filmed drinking a beer during celebrations in the locker room afterward. The FBI Agents Association condemned the firings Wednesday evening. “The FBIAA condemns today’s unlawful termination of FBI Special Agents, which — like other firings by Director Patel — violates the due process rights of those who risk their lives to protect our country,” the FBI Agents Association said in a statement. “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.”
Ken Dilanian is the justice and intelligence correspondent for MS NOW.
Carol Leonnig is a senior investigative reporter with MS NOW. Recommended
