'Growing resentments' heating up at FBI after firings of Trump foe

During his year as FBI director, far-right conspiracy theorist Kash Patel has been a major departure from his predecessor, Christopher Wray. Although Wray is a conservative Republican, he got along with former President Joe Biden and ex-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. Patel, in contrast, is an unwavering Trump loyalist who isn't shy about firing FBI agents he considers hostile to Trump. And according to the New York Times, there is "growing resentment" at the FBI because of it.

In an article published by the Times on February 25, journalists Glenn Thrush, Alan Feuer and Devlin Barrett report that "about ten FBI employees" were fired in late February because of "the investigation into President Trump's retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Florida."

Thrush, in a February 25 post on X, formerly Twitter, emphasizes, "The firings are likely to stoke growing resentments against Mr. Patel, seen by many agents as a high-flying neophyte willing to sack rank-and-file employees on a whim, without evidence they did anything wrong."

The Mar-a-Lago/classified documents case was one of two federal cases that former special counsel Jack Smith prosecuted against Trump for the Biden/Garland-era U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ); the other involved election interference. When Trump won the 2024 election, Smith — citing longtime DOJ policy against prosecuting a sitting president — considered both of his cases dead.

According to Thrush, Feuer and Barrett, the FBI firings under Patel are "part of a rolling barrage of retribution aimed at those who worked on the two federal prosecutions of Mr. Trump after his first term in office." And five Times sources believe that the firings won't be the last.

In their article, the Times journalists report, "The FBI Agents Association, a professional group representing bureau employees, denounced the dismissals in a statement, describing them as an unlawful termination that 'violates the due process rights of those who risk their lives to protect our country'…. Mr. Patel said that not only did the FBI under the Biden Administration request phone toll records for himself and Ms. Wiles, which did not include recordings or any information relating to the content of conversations, but officials at the time also sought to conceal they had done so in requesting court approval. Some, possibly all, of those fired were involved in that effort, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters."

Trump's decision to nominate Patel as FBI director underscored major divisions within the U.S. Senate. When Patel was confirmed 51-49, in a Senate vote on February 20, 2025, Democrats were united in their opposition. And two GOP senators, Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, joined them in voting "nay."