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.
The moves were outrageous, but Patel has spent much of the year ousting agents who’ve done nothing wrong as part of an ongoing, monthslong purge. Work on cases related to the criminal investigations into Donald Trump? Fired. Work on Jan. 6 cases? Fired. Took a knee for George Floyd five years ago? Fired. Display a gay pride flag on a desk at a field office? Fired. Refuse to needlessly humiliate a former director? Fired. The firings have reportedly destabilized the bureau. Indeed, reporting on the chaos, MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian noted in early August that the “purge that is ongoing is without precedent in the modern history of the bureau. It raises questions about whether the Trump administration is trying to turn the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency into an instrument of presidential whim — exactly the thing he baselessly accused his opponent of doing.” That was roughly three months ago, and the problem is far worse now. Evidently, the unqualified former podcast personality and conspiracy theorist whom Republicans put in charge of the FBI doesn’t care. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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