Last week, FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen agents who worked on the case investigating Donald Trump for taking top-secret materials to his Mar-a-Lago residence after his first term was over.
Those agents have now been revealed to be part of an elite group specializing in assessing threats from Iran, according to two reports.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the personnel move told the New York Sun and confirmed to MS Now that the layoffs impacted the counterespionage group tasked with investigating threats from foreign adversaries out of Iran just days before the US bombed its leaders.
Trump green-lit Operation Epic Fury, sending US forces to join Israel in raining down bombs on Iran in strikes that killed its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.
The FBI’s global espionage unit known as CI-12 includes spy operations with special forces in Cuba, Iran, and other proxy nations, as well as other terror organizations.
Patel told Fox News that the agents were spying on him and now-Chief of Staff Susie Wiles while they were private citizens as part of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump.
The subpoena for Patel and Wiles’ phone records was filed in the FBI databases in a way that made it difficult for the new FBI leadership to access once they took over last year.
The firings could reportedly impact investigations into retaliatory attacks from Iran after Trump approved the latest strikes and plunged the US into conflict with the Middle Eastern nation.
FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen agents last week involved in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case – and now sources claim those let go are part of a group that investigates threats from foreign adversaries like Iran and Cuba
The US with Israel conducted strikes in Iran over the weekend and amid the ongoing conflict there are concerns of retaliation on US soil and against Americans in the Middle East
In his first presidency, US strikes in Iran were followed up with Iranian operations on US soil – including attempts to assassinate Trump and his aides.
CI-12 has helped uncover numerous counterintelligence threats involving Iran and other foreign governments – though there is a separate group that handles Russia and China threats.
This group assisted in bringing down former US Air Force intelligence specialist Monica Witt, who began spying on the US for Iran. She was indicted by a grand jury in 2019 but defected to Iran and remains a fugitive.
People inside the FBI were worried on Monday that Patel might fire more agents and staff on CI-12, which also conducts investigations of illegal media leaks and mishandling of classified documents.
The FBI did not respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
Bureau spokesperson Ben Williamson told MS Now that the FBI doesn’t comment on personnel matters, but assured they maintain a ‘robust counterintelligence operation, with personnel all over the country.’
While there have not yet been any retaliatory attacks on US soil, Iran is conducting counter strikes in the Middle East and Americans are being warned to evacuate the region.
Most recently, Iranian drones struck the US Embassy in Dubai on Tuesday.
The State Department announced it is in contact with 3,000 stranded Americans as they work to arrange military and charter evacuation flights.
