FBI Fires, Rehires, Then Fires Again Agents Assigned to Trump Case

The Washington Post

15:31 JST, November 5, 2025

The FBI on Tuesday fired four agents who worked on the investigation during the Biden administration related to Donald Trump’s alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, according to people familiar with the matter.

FBI Director Kash Patel had initially fired the agents Monday, but after pushback from District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and others he reinstated them the same day, the people familiar with the matter said. Patel fired them again Tuesday morning.

Pirro attempted to save at least some of the agents because they were working on cases important to her office, the people said.

The firings were the latest in a purge that has gutted the Washington field office of some of its most experienced agents and hurt morale, according to people familiar with the office. Some of the fired agents were in supervisory roles and others had no longer worked in the office, but were agents in other field offices, according to multiple people with the knowledge of the personnel changes.

FBI leadership last week fired at least two other agents involved with the investigation into the 2020 election results. Patel also fired the agent whose responsibilities included overseeing the bureau’s jet fleet, according to two people familiar with the matter. That firing came after media reports criticized the FBI director for frequently using the government jet for personal matters.

The FBI declined to comment for this article. A spokesperson for Pirro did not immediately return a request for comment.

The FBI Agents Association, a nonprofit advocacy group that represents bureau personnel, rebuked Patel in a statement Tuesday.

“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,” the association said in the statement.

“An Agent simply being assigned to an investigation and conducting it appropriately within the law should never be grounds for termination,” the statement said. “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.”

Senate Republicans last month accused special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw the Trump election-interference investigation, of improperly obtaining the phone records of nine Republican lawmakers as part of that probe.

The phone records, which Smith obtained through subpoenas, did not include the contents of their phone calls or messages, but rather a log of who the senators contacted and for how long they were on the phone in the days around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been publishing subpoenas and investigatory documents related to the investigation online. The materials include the names of FBI agents, including some of the fired ones, which put the agents in the public spotlight.