FBI Shakeup: 10 Agents Fired Over Hidden Subpoena Scheme

FBI Director Kash Patel took decisive action this week by terminating at least ten bureau employees involved in a clandestine effort to monitor his own communications and those of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

The firings mark a major turning point in the effort to root out politically motivated actors within the federal government.

The move follows revelations that the previous administration’s FBI secretly subpoenaed the phone records of both Patel and Wiles while they were private citizens in 2022 and 2023.

These subpoenas were issued under the direction of former Special Counsel Jack Smith during his investigations into the President’s handling of documents and the 2020 election.

The seizure of these records was characterized as an outrageous and alarming breach of protocol.

Previous leadership reportedly used flimsy pretexts to justify the move and intentionally hid the records in prohibited case files to evade any internal or external oversight.

The records in question are known as toll records, which track the timing, duration, and recipients of phone calls.

While these are often described as metadata, the surveillance of high-level Trump advisers and America First leaders is viewed as a clear example of government overreach and political targeting.

Notably, Susie Wiles was not a member of the first Trump administration and had no direct involvement in the storage of presidential records or the 2020 election challenges.

This has led to questions regarding why she was targeted for surveillance at all, with many suggesting the move was designed to map out the 2024 campaign structure.

Patel has since moved to dismantle the Prohibited Access filing system that allowed these records to remain hidden from routine discovery.

This system was being weaponized by unelected officials to protect their own investigative overreach from the light of day.

The firings represent a significant step in the ongoing review of the federal government. For years, the America First movement has argued that the FBI and DOJ were being used as partisan tools to harass political opponents, and these latest revelations provide concrete proof of that bias.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has also sounded the alarm on these findings. He revealed that Jack Smith issued nearly 200 subpoenas targeting over 340 Republican individuals and entities.

The use of prohibited files to scoop up records on Patel and Wiles was a clear bypass of constitutional safeguards.

While the FBI Agents Association has condemned the terminations, the administration maintains that accountability is paramount.

Removing agents who participated in the unauthorized surveillance of private citizens is necessary to restore trust in the bureau.

The dismissals are not the first of their kind under Patel’s leadership. Since being confirmed, he has pushed for a broader personnel review of those who worked on the Jack Smith probes.

This includes the high-profile firing of former acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll and other top officials last year for their roles in Biden-era investigations.

The discovery that an attorney-client call between Wiles and her lawyer was also recorded in 2023 has only added fuel to the fire.

While officials claimed the attorney consented to the recording, Wiles was reportedly never informed, raising serious ethical questions about the lengths to which investigators were willing to go.