The Standing

A daily, non-partisan record of US democratic norms — and the events that erode them.

    FBI fires about 10 employees who worked on Trump's Mar-a-Lago classified-documents case

    Around February 25, 2026, the FBI dismissed roughly 10 employees who had worked on the criminal investigation into President Trump's retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The firings came hours after FBI Director Kash Patel publicly characterized the inquiry — under which his and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles's phone records had been subpoenaed — as Biden-era overreach, and followed reporting that those subpoenas had surfaced. The bureau dismissed additional personnel the next day, bringing the total to roughly a dozen.

    Jurisdiction
    federal
    Location
    Washington, D.C.

    Abuses documented

    Actors

    • Kash Patel (Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation)
    • Federal Bureau of Investigation

    On or about February 25, 2026, the Federal Bureau of Investigation dismissed roughly 10 employees who had worked on the criminal investigation into President Trump's retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence — the probe that, under former special counsel Jack Smith, produced criminal charges against Trump and two associates. The bureau dismissed additional personnel the following day, bringing the reported total to about a dozen over two days.

    The firings came hours after FBI Director Kash Patel publicly characterized the documents inquiry as Biden-era "overreach by unelected government officials." During that investigation, the phone records of Patel and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — both private citizens at the time — had been subpoenaed in 2022–2023, and reporting that those subpoenas had surfaced immediately preceded the dismissals. The FBI Agents Association said the removals stripped the bureau of critical expertise and destabilized its workforce.

    The dismissals fit a documented pattern under Director Patel of removing personnel tied to investigations the administration opposes. The archive separately tracks later facets of that campaign, including Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's March 2026 statement that every DOJ and FBI employee who investigated Trump is gone, and a June 2026 round of FBI analyst firings. This February 25 action is a distinct, earlier discrete event in that sequence, with its own date and stated justification.

    Why we recorded this

    Federal law-enforcement employees are meant to investigate suspected crimes based on evidence and lawful process, not on whether the target holds power. When the FBI fires career personnel specifically for their work on a lawful, court-authorized investigation into the president's own retention of classified documents, it punishes officials for doing their jobs and warns the rest of the workforce that enforcing the law against the powerful is a career risk. That retaliation against officers who followed the law, paired with the use of federal law-enforcement authority to settle scores tied to an investigation of the president, erodes the principle that the law applies equally regardless of office — which is why we record it.

    Sources

    1. Patel Fires F.B.I. Employees Who Worked on Trump Classified Records Case — The New York Times primary accessed June 13, 2026
    2. FBI Director Kash Patel ousts personnel tied to Trump classified documents probe — CNN primary accessed June 13, 2026
    3. Early Edition: February 26, 2026 — Just Security secondary accessed June 13, 2026

    See also