President Donald Trump has taken a victory lap over the firing of FBI agents he labeled “corrupt”—but his own FBI director says it’s old news.
The 79-year-old president took to Truth Social to publicly issue his demand Monday, calling on FBI Director Kash Patel, 45, to fire the “total Scum” within the agency who he said had demonstrated an anti-Trump bias in investigating efforts to obstruct certification of 2020 election results.
“These FBI Agents are total Scum, in their own way no better than the insurrectionists in Portland, Minnesota, Los Angeles, etc,” Trump wrote, linking to an article by the conservative outlet Just The News about what they described as an “anti-Trump FBI agent” driving investigative efforts against Trump back in 2022. “Kash better get them out, NOW! Radical Left Lunatics put in by the ‘Auto Pen’ and Obama!” he added.
Trump followed up less than a day later to announce that Patel had fired the “corrupt” FBI agents. But Patel said he had actually fired the agents last year. “Thank you Mr. President. Under your leadership, this FBI found the corrupt actors and terminated their employment last year,” he replied on Truth Social. “America voted for the end of weaponized law enforcement, and that’s what we are delivering.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the FBI for comment.
What began as a campaign promise to go after his opponents has become a central feature of Trump’s second term.
A senior Justice Department prosecutor was fired after he refused to take on the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey, a longtime Trump target, Reuters reported Monday.
Robert McBride, 64, the second-in-command in the Eastern District of Virginia office, was asked to lead the Comey case but declined.
The episode follows a November ruling in which a federal judge dismissed criminal charges against Comey after the U.S. attorney chosen to bring the case was found to have been unlawfully appointed.
Trump has also purged numerous Justice Department and FBI employees who were appointed under the Biden administration and demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi do more to bring charges against his perceived enemies.
But the Trump administration has denied that it is weaponizing the Justice Department, saying the president is simply demanding “accountability.”
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