Kash Patel gutted FBI counterintelligence team tasked with tracking Iranian threats days before US strikes, sources say | CNN Politics

Just days before the United States launched a major military operation in Iran, FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen agents and staff members from a counterintelligence unit tasked with monitoring threats from Iran, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

They were ousted for a simple reason: Each was involved in the investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

As a result, Patel hamstrung the Washington, DC-based FBI counterintelligence unit, known as CI-12, which handles cases ranging from mishandling of classified documents to tracking foreign spies operating on US soil.

The dismissals have added to concern inside the Justice Department and FBI that counterterrorism and intelligence investigations in the wake of the military operation in Iran could be hampered by a mass exodus of national security experts, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

And like the CI-12 unit, several senior officials were ousted or reassigned because of their involvement in Trump-related investigations, sources say. The removals have cost the Justice Department and FBI decades of combined experience in identifying the types of threats that sources say could appear in the wake of Operation Epic Fury.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment on personnel matters but told CNN in a statement the bureau “maintains a robust counterintelligence operation, with personnel all over the country.”

“Our teams remain fully engaged across the country and [are] prepared to mobilize any security assets needed to assist federal partners – as well as state and local law enforcement,” an FBI spokesperson said.

The New York Sun first reported that employees from the CI-12 unit had been targeted in last week’s firings.