When the FBI fired five veteran agents earlier this month, director Kash Patel did not give any clarification.
Jerk Firing Regeneration has continued through the stored agency. And now, details are emerging about potential inspiration, many sources close to agents tell CBS News.
A whistleblore lawyer, who represents the federal activists sacked under President Trump, said, “A disgusting purification of senior FBI officials is going on, all of which have increased in their careers as Nonspartison, and who have been targeted for windic, political objectives,” a Vishlabloar, which is a Vidyalbloar, who has a union of the President’s Tripa. Represent the workers.
Without any public comment from the FBI or Department of Justice Department, agents including Brian Drykall served for a short time acting Director At the beginning of the Trump administration, and the head of the powerful Washington Field Office, Steven Jensen was briefly fired and gave very little explanation to remove them. No one had reached the age of retirement, which means that sudden dismissal will deprive them of their full pension. The expulsion of an agent came a month after his wife died of cancer.
CBS News spoke with several sources close to the agents for this story. All those interviews spoke on the condition that they were not identified for fear of vengeance.
From the external appearance, former acting FBI Director was in good place
Some agents can be completely targeted as they worked on one or more criminal investigation by Mr. Trump, while others who were excluded in one Earlier firing The Biden administration worked on the 6 January investigation, stated by sources close to the agents. But the most senior agent, from drisl, external appearance, was in good position with Patel.
FBI 
Driskol, a highly decorated agent, who participated in several courageous anti -terrorism operations, began his short tenure as an acting director, which many agents saw as a unique act of bravery, opposed the call from a top trump appointment in the Department of Justice. Turn on the name Of the FBI employees who participated January. 6 Investigation. Nevertheless, Patel placed the drisl after his Senate confirmed, placed it in a high-profile post as the head of the bureau of the bureau, which oversees the FBI’s elite mortgage rescue team and its aviation unit.
Jensen, an experienced agent, who assisted in his post on January 6 from his post as the head of the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Section, was given a significant promotion by Patel to be an assistant director in charge of the Washington Field Office, which is one of the largest outpost in the country.
A source with the knowledge of the case told CBS News that Patel depended on both agents and especially praised the driskol, which he saw as a swashballing strategic operator. Another said that the FBI director opposed some firing. “I think I wish tried to save these people, honestly,” the source said.
Nevertheless, there are some indications that both men may have crossed the FBI leadership on loyalty and workers’ matters.
Some agents suspect political intervention
Zaid is part of a team of lawyers, who are preparing to sue the federal government on behalf of some fired FBI agents. He told CBS News that he had doubts out of political intervention.
“If you look at Patel’s testimony from your confirmation hearing, when he promised the committee that there would be no politicization or vengeance in the FBI under his leadership,” Zaid told CBS News, “You have to conclude that he was either lying or giving him the benefit of doubt, that he could come only from the White House or Justice Department, and he could come from the Department of Justice,”
Patel Promise During that hearing, the senator, “No ventilative action taken by any FBI will be taken, should I be confirmed as the FBI Director.”
Democrats on Capital Hill considered firing to be baldly political and harmful to American national security. Democratic Sen Mark Warner of Virginia, vice -president of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement to CBS News that he believes that agents should be praised for their ability to implement the law impartially.
“When we start purifying agents to do our work, instead of wearing a toe to a biased line, we weaken our defense against everything from violent crime to foreign threats, and it makes us all less secure,” the Warner said.
When asked who ordered the end of the agents, the FBI refused to comment. A White House official postponed the FBI to discuss the matters of bureau personnel.
“Suspendables”
There are other factors that have led some sources of agents and lawyers. To ask whether sudden expulsion was the result of the outdoor political intervention, possibly by the White House.
A question surrounds the role of a small band of correctly exhausted agents, who clashed with the FBI leadership under the directors James Komi and Christopher Ray and have been an outspoken critic of a bureau who believes he believes that there was a “weapon” against them.
Among them, Kyle Cerafin is one of the several former FBI agents and whistleblowers, who were suspended or canceled their safety approval for alleged misconduct during the biden administration. Former agents, including Cerafin, have referred to themselves as “suspendables”. They are targeting FBI officials, assuming they are politically motivated.
Cerafin has been one of the most vocal – and effective – members of the group. He is several times criticizing Patel for aggressive and rapid cleaning home in the bureau, but he also has Patel’s ear. Sources say that he has a great impact from his social media parachs on X and his podcast, “Kyle Serafin Show.”
Cerafin has publicly claimed some credits for last week’s perj. On August 4, he posted Thread on X Under the title, “Vetting Crisis continues,” in which he has one of a fire agents, Christopher M. Identified the mayor. Mayor was serving as one of the pilots of government aircraft used by Patel, until they were informed about their termination.
Cerafin had publicly estimated, correctly it was revealed that the mayor was first on a squad located in the Washington Field office, who allegedly investigated the classified documents of Mr. Trump wrongly investigated and discovered the Mar-e-Lego Estate of Shri Trump. The Department of Justice made criminal allegations against Mr. Trump on the discovery of documents, but a judge eventually Case dismissed,
Serafin told CBS News in an interview, “I identified that the person who ran the Mar-e-Lago case, resulting in a search warrant at the President’s house, was rubbing the shoulders in closeness with the FBI director” as his pilot. He was worried that “this is a person who is now a friend of your FBI director, and he does not even know whom he is talking to.”
On Alex Jones’s “Infovers”, he said that he “headed the inner thread” about the mayor. He told CBS News that his “Trump Administration Insider” was in the President’s class. ,
How firing came out
On the same day, Patel directed the drisl to fire the mayor, sources told CBS News. When the drisk asked on what basis, he did not get what he had considered a satisfactory answer to Patel, according to the source. Without ITR, drisl refused. Two days later, on 6 August, drisl, number 3 officer in FBI J. William River was approached, and told that they were being abolished, the source said. They were not given any reason, but later formally received a letter informing them that they were being fired.
Around the same time, Jensen also got relief from her duties. A source with knowledge of that case said that it was because he refused to set a subordinate agent on fire in the Washington Field office, although CBS News was not able to identify the person. Walter Giardina, a WFO agent, who was also dismissed in Perj, worked on several cases involving Mr. Trump and other members of his administration, including prosecution of senior trump associate Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress.
Earlier this month, the fifth agent fired Spencer Evans, which was the special agent of the Nevada Field Office of FBI until this summer, when he was suddenly reported to be shifted to Huntsville, Alabama. Till then, Trump supporters, including Cerafin, publicly criticized him in public on his enforcement during the tenure of former FBI Director Christfer Ray of FBI Covid policies.
In April, Cerafin Posted On this x:
“after @Kash_Patel He was nominated, he asked me about the people in the FBI. I said that Las Vegas’s bag, Evans, was a person who denied the Religious Housing for 19 shots and testing protocols. ,
Serafin’s post continued: “Kash said ‘Gaya gone.”
Cerafin attached a video from his post, showing that months of that conversation, Evans were still leading the Las Vegas FBI office, and Patel was praising his work in tracking criminals.
Then, last Wednesday, two hours before going into their car to drive across the country for their new assignments, Evans received a call informing them that they were also being abolished. He was not given any reason.
Two days later, Evans received a formal termination letter signed by Patel. It said that Evans “Covid-19 demonstrated the lack of rationality and overgrowth in the implementation of protocols and policies.”
After August firing, Serafin told CBS News that an associate in the FBI told him, “This week has four scale from your belt.” Cerafin kept the drisl out of the count, and referred to it as a “collateral damage” and said he was probably not worth being removed.
Graham Kates contributed to this report.
