US EditionKash Patel gutted FBI counterintelligence team tasked with tracking Iranian threats days before US strikes, sources say
Kash Patel dismissed at least 12 FBI counterintelligence staffers linked to the Mar-a-Lago probe, weakening Iran-related threat monitoring just before U.S. strikes, sources said.
- Kash Patel ordered mass firings of at least a dozen CI-12 staff days before U.S. strikes on Iran, according to sources, undermining counterintelligence efforts.
- The firings followed Patel's claim that Special Prosecutor Jack Smith and the FBI secretly obtained his and Susie Wiles's phone records during the DOJ investigation into classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
- Internal critics said several former FBI officials warned that the removals completely gutted and undermined CI-12's ability to handle classified documents and spy cases.
- Officials said the moves left many DOJ National Security Division offices with at least half their staff gone, raising concern they could hamper counterterrorism and intelligence work after the military operation.
- A joint FBI-DHS unclassified report described Iran's security services as 'adaptable and opportunistic' and domestic law enforcement has heightened monitoring after military conflict, while CI-12 had tracked threats following the 2020 strike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
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26 Articles
FBI Director Kash Patel Purged Iran Experts Before Donald Trump’s Strikes: Details
Photo Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Kash Patel took extraordinary actions just before the President’s attacks in Iran. A new bombshell story says the FBI Director fired an elite team of agents who specialize in foreign threats from the Middle East. Donald Trump recently joined forces with Israel, launching attacks on Iran over the weekend. Some have deemed the attacks on the Middle East to be illegal. A dozen staff members of the federal ag…
FBI agents fired by Patel worked in counterintelligence, including on cases involving Iran, sources say
Many of the agents who were fired last week by FBI Director Kash Patel were assigned to a squad that worked on global counterintelligence cases, including those involving Iran, sources said.
About a week before the attacks on Iran, the FBI released twelve employees who were said to have been Iranian experts.
Just days before the United States launched a major military operation in Iran, FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen agents and staff members from a counterintelligence unit tasked with monitoring threats from Iran, according to two sources familiar with the matter. They were removed for one simple reason: all had been involved in the investigation into President Donald Trump's alleged withholding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resid…
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