More turmoil at FBI amid firings by Patel, whistleblower action, Olympics visit

The recent wave of firings at the FBI by Director Kash Patel is being condemned by agency sources who say employees have been caught between the opposing political priorities of the Trump and Biden administrations.

FBI veterans are also concerned about the loss of experienced agents in the nation’s top law-enforcement agency.

At least 10 FBI employees — agents, analysts and supervisors — who worked on former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President Trump’s retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago were fired Wednesday.

Subsequent terminations occurred Thursday, bringing the estimate to a dozen over the course of two days.

The firings may include personnel who had been ordered by their superiors to take part in investigating Mr. Trump following the 2022 raid on his Florida estate for classified documents.

Some FBI employees, who felt uncomfortable about being told to work on these cases, contacted attorneys who advised their clients to do the bare minimum to keep their jobs.

“They objected. They did what they had to do, but they objected to it, and they were told, ‘You all f—-ing go. You’ll have no f—-ing choice,’” a retired FBI agent told The Washington Times.

“These were all loyalty tests,” the retired agent said. “You have a lot of people who did things under duress. They did the bare minimum under duress. They were just like, ‘I’m f—-ed. I have to do this.’”

The options, according to the retired agent, were limited: either following the orders, whistleblowing against their superiors to Congress or the Office of the Inspector General or quitting the FBI.

For the latest rounds of terminations, the FBI did not provide information about who was fired or why.

Retired FBI supervisory intelligence analyst George Hill told The Times that terminations are never cut-and-dried.

“The issue arises from Patel’s ignorance as to how the FBI operates, and I’m not excusing people, but it’s a machine that is driven by Sentinel and leads,” said Mr. Hill, referencing the bureau’s web-based, electronic case management system.

“He seems to be operating that he has minimal knowledge of Sentinel, and he just goes through and says, ‘OK, who touched this case?’ And it could be anything.”

The Times reached out to the FBI for comment.

The FBI Agents Association criticized the firings, which are part of a more expanded personnel purge by Mr. Patel, who was appointed by Mr. Trump for the new administration last year. It said the most recent action, like other firings by Mr. Patel, “violates the due process rights of those who risk their lives to protect our country.”

“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 FBIAA said.

The firings became public on the same day that Mr. Patel told Reuters that the FBI during the Biden administration had subpoenaed his phone records and those of current White House chief of staff Susie Wiles between 2022 and 2023, when both were private citizens.

The terminations are part of a larger employee purge the past year that included dozens of employees who either contributed to investigations of the president or who were seen as not on board with the administration’s agenda.

Last month, Mr. Patel fired and sidelined senior officials and agents in different field offices who were involved in investigations related to Mr. Trump or the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, with the terminations totaling at least a dozen.

These included a former Washington office executive overseeing Jan. 6 investigations, the acting head of the New York field office and Miami special agents who had worked on the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

In February 2025, the Justice Department instructed the FBI to fire eight specific employees and identify all personnel who worked on Jan. 6 and Hamas-related cases for review.

The retired agent who is familiar with the circumstances surrounding the firings told The Times, “If you think about the senior executives, there’s not that many, and you’ve already wiped out the first level of executives, and then the second go around, they wiped them out.”

FBI sources have told The Times that Mr. Patel fired many of these employees in an attempt to curry favor with Mr. Trump while the director finds himself under scrutiny by the White House and Capitol Hill lawmakers.

Mr. Trump recently told Mr. Patel he was disappointed in his behavior at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics following the U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal victory over Canada last Sunday, NBC News reported.  

The video of Mr. Patel, an avid hockey fan, shows him celebrating with the U.S. men’s hockey team in their locker room, chugging a beer, banging on a table and happily jumping and shouting in celebration.

Mr. Trump, a nondrinker, reportedly told Mr. Patel he was not happy about how he portrayed himself there and that he used a government aircraft for the trip to Italy, according to the person familiar with the matter.

When asked if Mr. Trump has any concerns about his FBI director related to his behavior at the Olympics and his use of the agency’s aircraft, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Times in a statement, “The murder rate has plummeted to a 125-year low, with last year marking the biggest one-year drop in recorded history. Crime rates are dropping across the board.”

She added, “This is a direct result of the President’s law and order agenda which is being successfully implemented by his law and order team, including FBI Director Kash Patel. The President has full confidence in his Administration.” 

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, provided new whistleblower disclosures to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week to support an investigation into Mr. Patel’s excessive use of FBI aircraft for personal travel.

Mr. Patel and his office stated that he was on an official work trip to Italy, not exclusively for the Olympics, to meet with Italian law enforcement and U.S. agencies providing security at the global athletic event months before this year’s World Cup soccer extravaganza that will partially be held in America.

“For the very concerned media — yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys — Greatest country on earth and greatest sport on earth,” Mr. Patel wrote on social media after the locker room video was posted.