Overview
- At least a dozen agents and staff from CI-12 in the FBI’s Washington Field Office were dismissed on Patel’s orders, according to reporting that cites four former officials.
- Those ousted had prior roles in the Justice Department’s Mar-a-Lago classified-documents investigation and were believed to have worked on subpoenas for phone records tied to Patel and Susie Wiles.
- Patel told Reuters that previous FBI leadership "secretly subpoenaed" his and Wiles’ phone records, which he called improper; the firings were reported to have followed hours after his statement.
- CI-12 handles insider-threat cases, media-leak inquiries, and global espionage with particular experience on Iranian threats, including past monitoring of potential retaliation after the 2020 Soleimani strike.
- Former FBI officials, including the Society of Former Special Agents’ president, warned the removals erode Iran-focused capability, while the FBI said it would not discuss personnel matters and emphasized ongoing nationwide counterintelligence operations; internal sources also reported bracing for possible additional cuts.