FBI Director Kash Patel has carried out another purge of the bureau’s senior ranks, forcing out field office leaders and other senior agents connected to the two criminal investigations of Donald Trump, according to multiple people briefed on the matter.
The special agent in charge in Atlanta has been removed, as has the acting assistant director in charge of the New York field office, two people familiar with the matter said. A former special agent in charge in New Orleans who had recently moved on to another job was also ousted.
As many as six agents in Miami were forced out over their connection to the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, the president’s Florida resort where he stored classified documents, two people said. And other agents pushed out were involved in the “Arctic Frost” investigation of Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.
The exact number of departures was unclear. An FBI spokesperson did not respond to questions.
That kind of turnover is unheard of at the FBI, which has a long tradition of being an independent law enforcement agency staffed by nonpolitical civil servants.
The news of the oustings came days after Patel and his aides told a conservative news outlet that they were committed to removing anyone from the FBI who had been involved in authorizing payments to confidential sources involved in identifying people who had rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The news also came hours after former special counsel Jack Smith testified in a public hearing on Capitol Hill about his role in twice indicting Trump when he was a former president. (Those cases were dropped when Trump was re-elected in 2024.) Smith strongly defended his approach to the investigation into whether Trump worked to overturn the 2020 election, as well as his approach to the probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents once he left office. But Republican lawmakers lashed out at Smith regardless, accusing him of political bias, while Trump called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Smith while the hearing was ongoing.
The FBI Agents Association has said it’s improper to fire FBI agents in the absence of evidence of misconduct or other proper cause, but that hasn’t stopped Patel from doing so. Some previously fired agents are suing him, including Brian Driscoll, who had been acting director before Patel was confirmed by the Senate.
Patel has previously fired a dozen agents who took a knee during a racial justice protest in Washington in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Even before he took office, the Trump Justice Department removed most of the FBI’s senior leaders in Washington.
CORRECTION (Jan. 23, 2025, 9:58 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article stated the current special agent in charge in New Orleans was forced out. It was a previous special agent in charge in New Orleans, who had recently moved on to a different position within the bureau.
Ken Dilanian is the justice and intelligence correspondent for MS NOW.
Carol Leonnig is a senior investigative reporter with MS NOW.