By Gizem Nisa Demir
ISTANBUL (AA) - At least 10 FBI employees who worked on former US Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents were fired on Wednesday, according to media reports.
CBS News reported, citing multiple sources, that all of the dismissed agents and analysts were involved in the classified documents probe examining Trump’s retention of sensitive records after leaving the White House in 2021.
The firings followed controversy surrounding the review of phone records linked to FBI Director Kash Patel and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles during the investigation, when both were private citizens.
Patel, currently under fire for his taxpayer-funded trip last week to the Olympic village in Italy, alleged that the FBI obtained his records “using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight.”
The FBI Agents Association condemned the dismissals, saying: “These actions weaken the Bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilizing the workforce… ultimately putting the nation at greater risk.”
Patel has been criticized for his firings of FBI agents involved in lawful investigations of Trump as during his confirmation hearings last year, he promised not to politicize the agency.
Smith’s investigations produced the first federal criminal indictments against a former US president, though the classified documents case was dismissed in 2024, and election-related charges were later dropped after Trump’s election victory, as such cases against sitting presidents cannot be pursued.
Smith said that had they gone forward, the cases would likely have resulted in a conviction.