by Natalia Mittelstadt
At least 10 FBI employees were fired after working on the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, according to a news report Friday.
The firings occurred after news broke on Wednesday that the FBI obtained phone records for now-director Kash Patel during the Biden administration in 2022, and current White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ phone records in 2023, while they were both private citizens.
The subpoenas for the phone records were issued as part of then-special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The August 8, 2022, FBI search of Mar-a-Lago—authorized by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and approved by a federal magistrate judge—stemmed from an investigation into former President Trump’s retention of classified documents after leaving office. Agents recovered 11 sets of classified records, including some marked “top secret,” from locations such as a storage room and Trump’s office, according to the unsealed property receipt and court filings. The search warrant targeted potential violations of three federal statutes: 18 U.S.C. § 793 (Espionage Act-related gathering/transmitting defense information), § 2071 (concealment/removal of records), and § 1519 (destruction/alteration of records in federal investigations).
Critics, including Trump and allies, highlighted the FBI’s inclusion of standard Department of Justice policy language on the “use of deadly force” in the operations order, which stated that officers “may use deadly force when necessary” in situations involving imminent danger of death or serious injury.
Defenders of the FBI’s decisions point out that the inclusion of standard “use of deadly force” language in the operational plan was routine, mirroring long-standing Department of Justice policy that appears in many FBI search authorizations. However, the search itself was widely described as unprecedented, marking the first time federal agents executed a court-approved warrant at the private residence of a former U.S. president.
Patel told Reuters that the bureau’s subpoenas were an example of federal overreach by unelected officials.
“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 director did not provide any evidence of wrongdoing by the staff who were terminated, CBS News reported, citing multiple unnamed sources.
The FBI Agents Association, which represents current and former agents, criticized the firings, saying they violate employees’ due process rights.
“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,” the association said.
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Natalia Mittelstadt is a reporter at Just the News. Executive Editor of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network Christina Botteri contributed to this report.
