© depositphotos/Pe3check The recent terminations represent a wider staff shakeup.
The FBI has terminated additional agents who were engaged in probes concerning US President Donald Trump, this time relieving employees who took part in the inquiry into Trump's handling of secret documents , the AP states , quoting sources.
The FBI Agents Association denounced the dismissals as unlawful and a danger to national security.
“These actions weaken the Bureau by depriving it of essential skills and unsettling its personnel, eroding confidence in leadership, and compromising the Bureau’s capability to fulfill its hiring goals, thereby putting the nation at increased peril,” the association articulated in a statement.
The newest round of terminations encompassed personnel who aided in the investigation of Trump's keeping of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, a situation that involved significant searches of Trump's property and resulted in a federal case that charged Trump with retaining classified documents from his initial term in the White House and hindering governmental attempts to retrieve them.
The terminations were verified to The Associated Press by several individuals knowledgeable about the issue. Altogether, approximately ten employees were dismissed.
The FBI also terminated agents involved in a distinct inquiry into Trump's efforts to subvert the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election. That inquiry similarly led to criminal accusations, akin to the classified documents case, but was discontinued by special counsel Jack Smith after Trump prevailed in the November 2024 election.
The dismissal occurred on the same day that current FBI Director Kash Patel indicated, according to Reuters, that the FBI under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden's administration had sought access to his and current White House chief of staff Susie Wiles' phone records. Patel mentioned the requests took place in 2022 and 2023, when he and Wiles were “private citizens.” Federal prosecutors served Patel with a subpoena in 2022 to provide testimony in the classified documents investigation.
The new firings are part of a more extensive staff overhaul steered by Patel, a Trump appointee. Patel has let go of numerous staffers in the past year who were either connected to investigations into the president or were viewed as being at odds with administration policy. The Justice Department has also dismissed various prosecutors since Trump assumed office last year.