Kash Patel purges more FBI agents hours after volatile Jack Smith hearing: report

Hours after the contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing, where former special counsel Jack Smith testified as Democrats and Republicans battled each other over Donald Trump’s incitement of the Jan. 6 insurrection, FBI Director Kash Patel once again went on a firing spree within his agency.

According to MSNBC reporters Ken Dilanian and Carol Leonnig, Patel continues systematically removing FBI supervisors and agents who participated in investigations of Trump.

Recent removals include the special agents in charge in Atlanta and New Orleans, as well as the acting assistant director in charge of the New York field office. Additionally, as many as six agents in Miami were forced out due to their involvement in the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, where Trump stored classified documents. Other dismissed agents participated in the Arctic Frost investigation examining Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

The total number of FBI employees dismissed remains unclear.

The mass removals occurred hours after Smith testified publicly before Congress about his role in twice indicting Trump while Trump was former president. Those prosecutions were subsequently dropped following Trump's 2024 re-election.

According to the report, Patel and his associates told a conservative news outlet days earlier that they were committed to removing any FBI official who authorized payments to confidential sources involved in identifying January 6 participants.

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