FBI Director Kash Patel fired, hired, and then re-fired at least four of his agents after overruling a MAGA rival who wanted them to keep their jobs, according to multiple reports.
Patel on Monday removed agents who investigated Donald Trump’s alleged 2020 election fraud, but was told to backtrack by another presidential pick within hours. Patel then performed a second U-turn despite the challenge from fellow Trump appointee Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
It comes amid the Trump administration’s open admission that it is using the power of the presidency to seek retribution against his political enemies. At the top of this list of rivals are officials involved in the Biden-era investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Pirro told Patel that she needed at least some of the agents he was culling for ongoing investigations at her prosecutor’s office. Firing them would hamper her progress, the former Fox News host said.
The top U.S. law enforcement official obliged, but then changed his mind. What changed the second time of asking remains unknown.
The next day, the agents were gone again, fired twice in 36 hours.
Citing people close to the matter, The Washington Post reports that among the casualties of the MAGA ping pong were senior supervisors and experienced investigators.
Morale in the Washington field office is understood to have taken a hit following the affair. Two more agents were let go last week.
It comes amid a wider trend of firings at the bureau.
Patel was reportedly incensed by press reports that he’d used an official FBI jet to go see his girlfriend sing the national anthem at a wrestling match. The agent in charge of overseeing the FBI aircraft has now been fired.
The FBI Agents Association, which represents around 14,000 former and current employees, pleaded with Patel to stop targeting agents for doing their jobs.
“The actions yesterday — in which FBI Special Agents were terminated and then reinstated shortly after, and then only to be fired again today — highlight the chaos that occurs when long-standing policies and processes are ignored,” it said in a statement, according to the Huffington Post.
“An Agent simply being assigned to an investigation and conducting it appropriately within the law should never be grounds for termination.
“Director Patel has disregarded the law and launched a campaign of erratic and arbitrary retribution. FBI Agents deal in facts, and we urge Director Patel to do the same.”
According to CNN, Patel has suggested to congressional Republicans that he intends to fire agents involved in “Arctic Frost,” the initial FBI investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Among the others on Trump’s retribution list from the 2020 fiasco is former FBI Director James Comey, who was indicted in September by a federal grand jury.
Alongside him is former special counsel Jack Smith, who led the investigation into the alleged fraud.
Smith used subpoenas to secure the phone records of nine Republican congressmen during the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021. The lengths of the calls were noted, as were who they spoke with. Smith says the contents of the calls were not known and that the act falls within the bounds of normal investigative practice.
The Daily Beast has contacted the FBI and Pirro for comment.
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