At least 10 agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been dismissed after taking part in an investigation into President Donald Trump and his handling of classified records.
The removals were confirmed on Wednesday by CBS, a US media partner of the BBC. The agents had worked on a case that examined how sensitive government documents were stored after Trump left office in 2021.
The dismissals came shortly after FBI Director Kash Patel told Reuters that investigators had subpoenaed his phone records during the documents probe, when he was still a private citizen. Phone records belonging to Susie Wiles, now the White House chief of staff, were also subpoenaed during that period.
Patel did not publicly accuse the dismissed agents of misconduct, and no formal reason for their removal has been announced.
After Trump’s first term ended, Special Counsel Jack Smith led two federal investigations. One focused on efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results. The second examined classified documents taken to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and whether there were attempts to block officials from recovering them.
Trump and two associates were charged in 2023 in connection with the documents case. However, in 2024, a federal judge in Florida dismissed the charges against Trump, ruling that Smith had not been lawfully appointed. This year, a federal appeals court in Georgia dropped the case against the remaining two defendants after a request from the Justice Department.
According to BBC, an advocacy group representing current and former FBI employees criticized the decision to remove the agents.
“These actions weaken the Bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilizing the workforce, undermining trust in leadership and jeopardizing the Bureau’s ability to meet its recruitment goals – ultimately putting the nation at greater risk,” the FBI Agents Association said in a statement.
Since Trump returned to office in January, the United States Department of Justice and the FBI have removed several employees connected to earlier federal investigations involving him.
The Justice Department has also explored legal action against former FBI director James Comey, who was dismissed by Trump in 2017, and Letitia James, who brought a civil fraud case against the president.