The FBI issued subpoenas for the phone records of Kash Patel and Susie Wiles in 2022 and 2023 while they were still private citizens, as part of a federal investigation concerning Donald Trump, Fox News has verified.
Patel currently serves as the FBI director, and Wiles holds the position of White House chief of staff.
Fox News reports that several FBI employees were terminated on Wednesday, although their identities remain confidential for privacy reasons.
Reuters initially reported on the subpoenas, which were enacted under the Biden administration as special counsel Jack Smith pursued inquiries into Trump’s conduct surrounding the 2020 election and his management of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
In 2023, Smith charged Trump with multiple felony counts related to his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and his subsequent handling of sensitive documents after his presidency.
However, a federal judge later dismissed the case concerning election interference when Smith decided to withdraw it following Trump’s re-election, adhering to a Justice Department policy that prohibits prosecuting an incumbent president.
Smith also dropped the Justice Department’s appeal of a separate ruling that dismissed the classified documents case. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in both matters.
In a statement to Fox News Wednesday, Patel called the move to seize the phone records “outrageous and deeply alarming.”
“It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records — along with those of now White House chief of staff Susie Wiles — using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight,” he said.
The FBI had found the phone records in files labeled as “Prohibited,” Reuters reported.
Patel also said he recently ended the FBI’s ability to categorize files as “Prohibited.”
Smith testified last year that records of members’ calls helped investigators verify the timeline of events surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
He said prosecutors “followed all legal requirements in getting those records” and told a House panel the records obtained from lawmakers did not include the content of conversations, Reuters reported.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
