As this week got underway, there were some unconfirmed reports about FBI Director Kash Patel firing several officials linked to the faux controversy known as “Arctic Frost,” though soon after, there were related reports that the firings had been reversed.
At about the same time, The New York Times reported that Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., had intervened to “halt the dismissal” of some veteran FBI agents, insisting that their ouster “would hamper work on ongoing cases.”
A day later, it now appears they were fired anyway: MSNBC has confirmed the four experienced FBI agents have been kicked out of the bureau because of their work on former special counsel Jack Smith’s election investigation.
The FBI Agents Association was not pleased. Its written statement read in part:
The actions yesterday — in which FBI Special Agents were terminated and then reinstated shortly after, and then only to be fired again today — highlight the chaos that occurs when long-standing policies and processes are ignored. An Agent simply being assigned to an investigation and conducting it appropriately within the law should never be grounds for termination. Director Patel has disregarded the law and launched a campaign of erratic and arbitrary retribution. FBI Agents deal in facts, and we urge Director Patel to do the same. When leadership abandons due process, it doesn’t just erode trust — it makes the American public less safe.
If “Arctic Frost” were a genuine controversy, it might be easier to understand Patel’s crusade against those involved. But there is no actual scandal, and there’s still no evidence of Smith or anyone associated with his investigations having done anything wrong.
That partisan hysterics are ending the careers of veteran FBI agents is as ridiculous as it seems.
But adding insult to injury is the broader pattern. This week’s four firings come on the heels of Patel forcing out a special agent in charge, Aaron Tapp, a 22-year veteran of the bureau who had appeared in documents recently released by Senate Republicans as part of the same manufactured outrage.
At about the same time, the FBI’s beleaguered director also forced out Steven Palmer, a 27-year veteran of the bureau, because Patel was embarrassed by revelations that he used an official jet to fly out to see his girlfriend perform at a concert.
In early October, Patel also fired three other agents accused of being part of the “Arctic Frost” nonsense, while he simultaneously tore down the Washington field office’s federal corruption unit.








