One of the biggest stories in Republican politics right now is the pseudo “Arctic Frost” controversy. In a nutshell, the party and conservative media outlets are insisting that the Biden-era FBI was caught “spying” on GOP members and “tapping” their phones as part of the investigation into Republican efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Almost immediately after the story broke, it started unraveling into nothing, but that hasn’t stopped assorted partisans on the right and their conservative media allies from spending recent days telling Americans that the largely meaningless “scandal” is “worse than Watergate.”
If we were talking about yet another Republican effort to rewrite recent history, it might be tempting to shrug off the GOP campaign as little more than tiresome politics. But we’re seeing the real-world effects of the party’s weak allegations: NBC News reported the FBI has fired at least three special agents who worked in connection with former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations, while shutting down a public corruption squad. From the article:
All three agents were previously named in documents released by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, about ‘Arctic Frost,’ an FBI probe that was the precursor to the Smith investigation. … As NBC News first reported in May, the ‘CR15’ unit, the FBI Washington Field Office’s federal corruption unit that was deeply involved in the Smith case, was folded in the spring. But the agents were not fired until Tuesday.
FBI Director Kash Patel acknowledged the developments during a Fox News interview, saying that some agents involved in subpoenaing the phone toll records of members of Congress — a benign move — had been ousted.
“You’re darn right I fired those agents, you’re darn right I blew up CR-15, the public corruption squad,” he said.
Broadly speaking, there are three elements to this worth keeping in mind. The first and most obvious is the absurdity of seeing the bureau oust agents who don’t appear to have done anything wrong.
The second is the pattern in which Patel keeps 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 FBI director? Fired.
The firings have reportedly destabilized the FBI. Evidently, the unqualified former podcast personality and conspiracy theorist whom Republicans put in charge of the bureau doesn’t care.
Finally, the fact that Patel took this opportunity not just to fire agents but to shutter an FBI group tasked with investigating public corruption is part of an indefensible pattern.
NBC News recently reported, “For decades, the FBI and the Justice Department have been the main enforcers of laws against political corruption and white-collar fraud in the United States.” In 2025, however, the Trump administration “has dismantled key parts of that law enforcement infrastructure, creating what experts say is the ripest environment for corruption by public officials and business executives in a generation.” Consider the recent pattern of events: And now an FBI group tasked with investigating public corruption is no more. No one on Team Trump has ever explicitly said that it’s tolerant of corruption, but given the pattern of behavior, they really haven’t had to. 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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