FBI Director Kash Patel has fired at least 10 bureau employees who worked on the 2021 investigation into President Donald Trump's handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, according to reports.
The staffers, a mix of agents and analysts, were dismissed on Wednesday after revelations that their team had secretly subpoenaed Patel's phone records and those of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, both then private citizens.
🚨 FBI SHAKE-UP — AGENTS FIRED OVER PHONE RECORDS SEIZURE
— Jim Ferguson (@JimFergusonUK) February 26, 2026
A major development has just emerged from inside the FBI.
Director Kash Patel has reportedly fired at least 10 bureau employees connected to the seizure of phone records belonging to Patel himself and Susie Wiles — now… pic.twitter.com/RpnA9AWr6H
The move turns an already bitter battle over the Trump probes into something more personal and much more chilling for career investigators. It suggests that under Kash Patel, the FBI is not just being steered in a new direction but also purged of those who once signed off on scrutinising the now-president.
It also leaves basic questions unanswered: whether the firings followed any proper disciplinary process, what precise rules were supposed to have been broken, and how the bureau expects to convince future agents that politically sensitive work will not end their careers.
Kash Patel Uses The FBI To Settle Scores
CBS News reported that at least 10 FBI staffers who worked on former Special Counsel Jack Smith's classified documents case were fired on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. The sources said all of the employees had been assigned to the investigation into Trump's retention of highly sensitive records after leaving the White House in 2021.
That probe, which predated Trump's return to the presidency, ultimately uncovered boxes of classified material stored in the bathroom and ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and led to federal charges, which have since been derailed by Trump's political comeback.
Patel's decision came after a Reuters report revealed that during the original investigation, the FBI secretly subpoenaed his and Susie Wiles's phone records, now Trump's powerful White House Chief of Staff, but then still a private citizen and senior political adviser.
Patel reportedly claimed agents used 'flimsy pretexts' to justify the subpoenas and then hid the paperwork 'in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight.' Reuters said it had not independently verified those accusations.
Patel has not produced public evidence that the staff he sacked broke rules or targeted him unlawfully. According to CBS News, he did not point to any specific misconduct by the individuals who lost their jobs. Instead, the message looks political: cross Trump, or anyone in his inner circle, and your badge becomes conditional.
The FBI, at the direction of Director Kash Patel, has fired at least a half-dozen agents tied to the 2022 search of President Trump's home in Florida, six people familiar with the matter told NBC News. https://t.co/3abTaDwuSl
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 26, 2026
This is not Patel's first clear-out. Earlier reporting described him forcing out senior agents and field office leaders with ties to Trump investigations, including the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago and the separate Arctic Frost probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The latest sackings extend that pattern down the ranks and into the heart of the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
Kash Patel, Trump And A Furious FBI Backlash
If Patel expected quiet compliance from within the bureau, he miscalculated. The FBI Agents Association, which represents current and former agents, issued an unusually sharp rebuke, telling CBS News that 'these actions weaken the Bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilising the workforce, undermining trust in leadership and jeopardising the Bureau's ability to meet its recruitment goals — ultimately putting the nation at greater risk'. A similar statement carried by the Associated Press called the firings unlawful and warned that they endangered national security.
Behind the formal language sits a rawer fear. FBI culture relies on the idea that agents can follow evidence, even when it leads towards a sitting president, without worrying that a future administration will come for their pensions.
In an open letter last year, the same association had already warned Congress that Patel was making 'summary terminations' without due process and eroding the legal protections meant to shield agents from political retribution. They wrote that such moves were creating 'instability and uncertainty within the Bureau' and risked driving out experienced public servants.
Seen in that context, the firing of the Mar-a-Lago team is not just an internal HR matter. It is a shot across the bows of anyone still inside the FBI who worked on Trump-related cases, from the classified records saga to the Arctic Frost election investigation. CBS News reported that, even before this week, the Justice Department had removed prosecutors from Jack Smith's team, and that the FBI had already fired agents involved in Arctic Frost. Patel's latest round simply tightens the screw.
The bureau has not publicly set out its justification for each termination, and Patel has not subjected his claims about the 2021 subpoenas to any independent public review.
For now, the dispute sits between the bureau's leadership, agents who say due process is being bypassed, and a set of firings that have turned an old investigation into a present-day flashpoint.
