FBI Director Kash Patel has dismissed multiple FBI employees connected to the August 2022 search of then former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, according to reporting that cited people familiar with the matter.
On the same day those terminations were reported, Patel also alleged that his own phone records were secretly obtained during the Biden administration as part of investigations involving Trump, and that now White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ records were also obtained.
According to NBC News, at least six FBI agents involved in the Mar-a-Lago search were fired, citing six individuals familiar with the matter. The report also said at least ten employees overall were dismissed, including support staff, agents, and supervisors, according to three of those sources.
The FBI did not immediately respond to NBC’s request for comment.
In a statement to Reuters, Patel called it “outrageous and deeply alarming” that previous FBI leadership “secretly subpoenaed” his records and those of Wiles, and he described a process he characterized as being tucked into files designed to avoid oversight.
Even without the benefit of a full public accounting, the shape of the moment is hard to miss. The Bureau that insists on expansive authority in the name of public trust now asks for patience when questions land on its own doorstep.
The underlying event that put these employees in Patel’s crosshairs was the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago in Florida. A U.S. magistrate judge, Bruce Reinhart, signed the warrant on August 5, 2022. Agents executed it on August 8, 2022.
The warrant permitted agents to search the “45 Office,” storage rooms, and other areas used by Trump and his staff, while excluding guest suites and areas occupied by third parties.
That narrowness is worth noting because it undercuts the easy talking point that this was simply routine, carefully bounded law enforcement work and nothing more. When the federal government targets a former president’s home, it is not “ordinary.” It is a stress test for the republic.
Breitbart News, citing Fox News Digital, reported on internal FBI emails that reflected unease before the search about probable cause.
An unnamed assistant special agent in charge wrote in an internal email that "very little has been developed related to who might be culpable for mishandling the documents."
The same official also noted reliance on “single source” information that had “not been corroborated.” Another unnamed official questioned whether, absent new information, it was “fair to table this,” citing a lack of “new facts supporting PC.”
Read those lines carefully. They do not sound like confident, evidence-rich momentum. They sound like an agency pushing forward while key internal voices raised basic questions about culpability, corroboration, and probable cause.
That is not an argument against federal law enforcement. It is an argument for federal law enforcement that stays inside the lines, especially when the target is a political figure, and the country is already raw.
The FBI Agents Association condemned what it described as the “unlawful termination” of FBI special agents and said the move “violates the due process rights of those who risk their lives to protect our country.”
The association also warned: "These actions weaken the Bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilizing the workforce."
Agents do risk their lives. And due process is not a slogan to be deployed only when it is convenient.
But the Bureau’s defenders keep skipping over the public’s due process, the right of Americans to expect that powerful investigative tools are not turned into a political weapon, or even perceived to be. An institution that can raid a former president’s home must be able to withstand a hard internal reckoning when its own emails show doubt about probable cause, corroboration, and culpability.
The Bureau is not entitled to trust. It is supposed to earn it.
Since Trump returned to office, the FBI has also removed employees tied to January 6 cases, according to the source material.
There is a predictable reflex in Washington to treat personnel actions as the real scandal, while ignoring why those actions are happening. If internal doubts existed before one of the most explosive searches in modern political memory, then leadership changes are not a sideshow. They are the point.
Patel’s subpoena allegation adds another layer: if phone records tied to him and Susie Wiles were obtained in secret, and if the process was routed in ways he says were designed to avoid oversight, that is not just an aggressive investigation. That is the kind of behavior that breeds cynicism and dares the public to stop believing official assurances.
For now, the public is left with reported termination numbers from unnamed sources, an Agents Association protest, internal emails that raise serious questions, and Patel’s allegation that his phone records were “secretly subpoenaed.”
If the Bureau wants credibility, it cannot keep operating as if credibility is a birthright. If leadership wants reform, it will have to do more than fire people. It will have to prove that the rules apply inside the FBI the same way they apply to everyone else.
When power operates in the shadows, the country pays the bill.