The Federal Bureau of Investigation has fired additional agents involved in investigations related to the US President Donald Trump, this time dismissing employees who took part in the probe into the Republican’s alleged hoarding of classified documents, according to people familiar with the matter on Wednesday.
Under the leadership of FBI Director Kash Patel, a Trump appointee, the firings form part of a broader personnel purge that, over the past year, has seen dozens of employees removed for either contributing to investigations involving President Donald Trump or being viewed as not aligned with the administration’s agenda. The U.S. Department of Justice has carried out similarly sweeping dismissals of prosecutors since Trump took office last year.
The FBI Agents Association condemned the firings as unlawful and endangering national security.
The association said in a statement, “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.”
The latest round of terminations included employees who helped investigate Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, a case that involved a high-profile FBI search of the Florida property and resulted in a federal prosecution charging the now-president with holding onto top-secret records from his first term in office and obstructing government efforts to get them back.
As per sources quoted by The Hindu , so far, a total of 10 FBI employees have been fired. The FBI has also fired agents who participated in a separate investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That investigation also led to criminal charges, but like the Mar-a-Lago case, was abandoned by special counsel Jack Smith after Trump won the White House in November 2024 because of longstanding Justice Department legal opinions that say sitting presidents cannot be indicted.
The firings were revealed on the same day that Patel was quoted as telling the FBI, during the Biden administration had subpoenaed his phone records and those of current White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Patel said the action had occurred in 2022 and 2023 when they were private citizens.
In 2022, Patel was subpoenaed by federal prosecutors to testify before a grand jury in Washington in the Mar-a-Lago investigation, and appeared after being given immunity, previous reports stated
