Kash Patel fires at least 10 FBI employees who worked on Trump's Mar-a-Lago documents investigation: reports

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Thu Feb 26, 2026, 07:13 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: The Independent

Wednesday 25 February 2026 22:56 EST


The FBI, under the leadership of Kash Patel, has fired at least 10 employees who worked on the investigation into classified documents at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, according to multiple media reports. The staffers were dismissed after Reuters reported that the bureau had obtained phone records from Patel and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in connection to the probe during the Biden administration.

“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 told Reuters.

The investigation, launched in March 2022 under the direction of Special Counsel Jack Smith, focused on Trump’s handling of classified materials after leaving office in 2021 and his alleged obstruction of justice.

It culminated in an FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, during which agents recovered boxes containing materials marked top secret. The following year, Trump was hit with a 37-count indictment from Smith’s office, alleging that he, as a private citizen, willfully kept documents containing some of the country’s most sensitive secrets. In July 2024, a federal judge dismissed the case, ruling that Smith's appointment was unconstitutional.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/kash-patel-fbi-fired-agents-mar-a-lago-b2927786.html

---

ETA as a "historical note" - Jack Smith wasn't brought in until NOVEMBER 2022, 3 months AFTER the search and seizure of items at Mar-a-Lago.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Lawyer up Guys!

Wrongful Discharge

https://www.usa.gov/wrongful-termination

Wrongful termination happens when your employer fires you for an illegal reason. Learn what qualifies as wrongful discharge and the actions you can take.

What is wrongful termination?
Your termination could be wrongful if your employer fired you:

Due to discrimination
In violation of a federal or state labor law
Because you reported and refused to participate in harassment
Because you reported and refused to conduct an illegal act or safety violation
Termination could also be considered wrongful if your employer fired you but did not follow their termination policies.

[Skittles]

2. only Trump whores need apply

[mwmisses4289]

3. And the attempted cover up continues.

[Chasstev365]

4. Drip... Drip... Drip... Leak what you know!

[Botany]

5. So it was the FBI agents fault and not Trump's criminal behavior?

N/t

[Volaris]

7. Yeah it works the same as covid cases.

If you stop REPORTING crimes, there's obviously no crimes to be reported about, because if there's no report, how can there be a crime?

It's the same way the tides work, and the way time flows backwards.

Hahahaa and you libtards think you're all soooooo smartypants with your 'logical consistency' and your 'cause THEN effect' 'science'.

[Botany]

9. Funny me I think we are dealing with just a tip of the largest international criminal network in history and

one of the agencies, the FBI, whose job it is to oversee and stop such criminal endeavors has replaced
much of its detective work force with new agents that have to agree with Trump’s lies that he really won
the 2020 election and Russia’s interference in our elections, media, and politics is just a hoax.

Can I start drinking now?

[Volaris]

17. Yes, you can drink. And then we can all go vote and end this crime syndicate!

[BumRushDaShow]

8. For ONE YEAR

NARA (NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION), starting around December 2020 after 45 lost the election, and throughout 2021, requested that 45 start having his staff start turning stuff in to be stored in the archives/warehouses, etc., following their normal processes and procedures for retrieving/cataloguing, and storing items as part of the transition.

And for ONE YEAR, 45's people, including Todd Blanche IIRC, REFUSED TO COMPLY, only trickling a few boxes at a time to NARA.

It wasn't until JANUARY 2022 when NARA had had ENOUGH when they finally got a tranche of 15 boxes of stuff.

A month later, FEBRUARY 2022, NARA made the referral to DOJ after they spotted items marked "classified" in the boxes, which was when it finally got on Garland's radar.

From the warrant (filed AUGUST 5, 2022) all done BEFORE Jack Smith (PDF) - https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-09/08.31.23.%20--%20Mar-a-Lago%20Search%20Warrant%20-%20Interim.pdf

AFFIDAVIT IN SUPPORT OF AN
APPLICATION UNDER RULE 41 FOR A
WARRANT TO SEARCH AND SEIZE

I,(b)(6), (b)(7)(C), (b)(7)(F) per FBI , being first duly sworn, hereby depose and state as follows:

INTRODUCTION AND AGENT BACKGROUND

1. The government is conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper
removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized spaces, as well as the unlawful
concealment or removal of government records. The investigation began as a result of a referral
the United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) sent to the United
States Department of Justice (DOJ) on February 9, 2022, hereinafter, “NARA Referral.” The
NARA Referral stated that on January 18, 2022, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act
(PRA), NARA received from the office of former President DONALD J. TRUMP, hereinafter
“FPOTUS,” via representatives, fifteen (15) boxes of records, hereinafter, the “FIFTEEN
BOXES.” The FIFTEEN BOXES, which had been transported from the FPOTUS property at
1100 S Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, FL 33480, hereinafter, the “PREMISES,” a residence and club
known as “Mar-a-Lago,” further described in Attachment A, were reported by NARA to contain,
among other things, highly classified documents intermingled with other records.

2. After an initial review of the NARA Referral, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) opened a criminal investigation to, among other things, determine how the documents with
classification markings and records were removed from the White House (or any other authorized
location(s) for the storage of classified materials) and came to be stored at the PREMISES;

(snip)

So that is when the FBI got involved.

[Botany]

10. They all should be picked up and charged with RICO crimes.

N/t

[BumRushDaShow]

11. +INFINITY

[Botany]

14. An ongoing criminal enterprise

Trump steals and no doubt sells or trades out our nation’s top secrets. …. See Rosenbergs and FBI agent
Robert Hansen. 2 executions and died doing 16 life terms in the Federal Super Max.

Republicans install Judge Cannon to protect Trump.

Trump is caught with the stolen documents. Trump and the right wing blames the FBI for his
crimes.

Trump’s lawyers and the Republicans slow walk any criminal or civil charges.

The corrupt U.S. Supreme Court rules that Presidents are allowed to break the law.

Prosecutors pile up 199 felony indictments on Trump … he is convicted on 34 felony counts
in N.Y. State. Trump and his businesses pile up @ least 1/4 billion in civil penalties

Musk, Tiel, and others rig the 2024 election and Trump is reinstalled into the White House and
all those charges and shit get dropped.

[Kid Berwyn]

6. Russia. Russia. Russia.

Trump says what happens in Putin meeting is 'none of your business'

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-putin-meeting-business/story?id=63967271

[JohnnyRingo]

12. Don't deny, just point an accusing finger at the accusers.

"How dare they investigate me and find out what I did!"

[travelingthrulife]

13. FBI agents who still have integrity need to speak out against these fascists.

[bluestarone]

15. Am i crazy thinking DISCOVERY would help their lawsuits?

Sue the fuckers!!

[travelingthrulife]

16. So this is how history gets re-written by the winning party.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

18. Deadline Legal Blog-MAGA pretends to misunderstand this routine investigative move

Law enforcement routinely obtains phone records when conducting investigations. Republicans have tried to paint that common move as scandalous.

MAGA pretends to misunderstand this routine investigative move - MS NOW apple.news/A4OHAw9CrTqG...

— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2026-02-26T20:26:10.520Z

https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/phone-records-jack-smith-2020-trump-kash-patel-fbi-firings

Republican lawmakers have been criticizing former special counsel Jack Smith for obtaining some of their phone toll records in his 2020 election interference investigation. Yet it’s a routine step in criminal probes to secretly get such records, which don’t capture the substance of conversations like wiretaps do but rather show which numbers were in contact at certain points in time.

Regarding the nondisclosure orders his team obtained with those records, Smith explained to lawmakers that “there was a grave risk of obstruction of justice, given the obstructive conduct of President [Donald] Trump as is set forth, for example, in the indictment in Florida,” referring to the other case he brought against Trump, related to classified documents.

Both of Smith’s cases vanished with Trump’s 2024 election win, due to the Justice Department’s policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. But instead of leaving the dismissals as windfalls for the president and trying to move on, Republicans have been keeping the memory of Trump’s alleged criminality alive by attacking Smith and other government workers associated with the efforts against the revenge-minded president.

The latest example, MS NOW reported Wednesday night, is that 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 classified documents probe. 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.”.....

To be sure, a person getting their phone records subpoenaed during an investigation doesn’t mean they’re guilty of any crimes or even that law enforcement thinks they are. But the FBI firings, which, perhaps not coincidentally, come amid the latest scrutiny of Patel’s directorship, also recall his own strange ties to the classified documents case, in which he testified in the grand jury after publicly claiming that Trump declassified documents before leaving the White House the first time.

So, while Patel has claimed that a “pretext” was used against him to get his records when he was a private citizen, he could be relying on a misleading rationale himself for these latest firings. Of course, it’s only the latest revenge-based move by this administration against people who did their jobs. That the move is some mix of Trumpian vengeance and self-preservation on Patel’s part seems clear, while painting a potentially ordinary investigative step as scandalous in the process.