Posted originally on CTH on February 26, 2026 | Sundance 

According to media reports and statements from FBI Director Kash Patel, both Patel and Susie Wiles had their telephone records subpoenaed by the FBI in 2022 and 2023 when both were private citizens. This is during the time when Donald Trump was being investigated by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Within the reporting by Reuters, at least one phone call between Susie Wiles and her attorney was recorded by the FBI without her knowledge. As the story is outlined Wiles’ attorney was working with the FBI and knew the conversation was being captured, Wiles did not.

FBI Director Kash Patel has reportedly fired 10 FBI agents who were involved in the process of reviewing and intercepting communications as part of their work on the Jack Smith case. Internal FBI offices are not happy with Patel’s action against those officials.

(REUTERS) – The FBI subpoenaed records of phone calls made by Kash Patel and Susie Wiles, now the FBI director and White House Chief of Staff, when they were both private citizens in 2022 and 2023 during the federal probe of Donald Trump, Patel told Reuters on Wednesday.

Reuters is the first to report on the FBI’s actions that took place during the Biden administration, largely when Special Counsel Jack Smith was investigating whether Trump had interfered with the 2020 election and had hidden classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, according to Patel. Smith was appointed to take over that probe in November 2022.

[…] “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,” Patel said in a statement to Reuters.

[…] At least 10 current FBI employees have been dismissed as a result of the revelations about the targeting of Patel, Wiles and others connected to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, according to three FBI officials.

[…] In 2023, the FBI recorded a phone call between Wiles and her attorney, according to two FBI officials. Wiles’ attorney was aware that the call was being recorded, and consented to it, but Susie Wiles was not.

[…] The FBI discovered the phone records in files categorized as “Prohibited,” which makes them difficult to discover on the bureau’s computer systems. Patel said he recently ended the FBI’s ability to categorize files as “Prohibited.” (read more)

I have mixed emotions about this.  On one hand it is infuriating to yet again see the audacity and clear weaponization of the DOJ and FBI under the prior administration.  On the other hand, duh! Non-pretending people knew all along this malicious network of DOJ and FBI lawfare operations included surveillance of everyone around President Donald Trump.

Remember, Donald Trump was accused of criminal wrongdoing by the twisted lawfare logic of Smith and his crew.  Accepting the reality of a criminal investigation, fraudulent though it was, it was entirely predictable that the DOJ and FBI would leverage all available tools to conduct continued surveillance and monitoring.

The secondary frustrating aspect to this story is how Director Patel has only just now fired those 10 FBI agents involved.  This is a big part of the criticism that many of us have with Patel and his soft glove approach upon taking the position as FBI Director.

Any FBI official who was involved in the originating Crossfire Hurricane and/or Robert Mueller investigations should have been fired for cause on Day One!  40 FBI agents worked for more than two years on the Mueller probe investigating a fictitious claim about President Trump colluding with Russia in the 2016 election.

Those FBI agents should have been identified and terminated immediately, with prejudice; thereby sending a loud message that weaponized FBI activity was the immediate focus of the new leadership and would not be tolerated.

Yes, it’s good to see a few dozen being removed bit-by-bit a year later, but the lack of urgency IN IDENTIFYING THE FBI BAD ACTORS early on only makes the situation more difficult for other cabinet members who are genuinely trying to weed out the corrupt and nefarious activity.  I know this, because I can see first-hand how so much of the intelligence community reform energy is being expended defending itself from silo activity fueled by these corrupt FBI embeds.

A year has been wasted on weak internal housecleaning, and Director Kash Patel still does not have his arms around the scale of corrupt activity underneath him; if he did, these stories would not be the headlines.

Patel just removed 10 agents who were investigating him. Great.  Thank you.

Now, about the thousands of corrupt agents who were investigating everyone else…. Oh wait, “prohibited access files ” again.  May 2025:

Important Note from Chuck Grassley’s Release Yesterday!

The FBI intentionally hid information as to ensure the public never knew about it?

Think about what that indicates about how the institution operates.

REFORM? …Try this.

#1) Send out an email to every field office, agent, division and contractor within the FBI asking every participant in Crossfire Hurricane or the Mueller investigation to report to the auditorium in DC on XXX date.

#2) Have big buffet and coffee set up. Now, with all of them seated in the audience, take their cell phones, laptops and electronic devices away, and give each of them a piece of paper and ask them to write down the names of every single person they interacted with during their investigative duty. Give them one hour to complete the task.

#3) Retrieve their notes. Send them to lunch (provided), as you review the lists. [Cell phones, laptops and electronic devices remain on side of the room where they placed them.]

#4) When they return, tell them all to stand up as you read the names from the lists. As their name is called, they can sit down.

#5) At the conclusion of reading the list, almost everyone should be seated, correct? Those who remain standing are unknown to the FBI investigators in the room. Tell those standing people to leave and assemble in an adjacent room, under watch.

#6) After the small group departs (if any), ask these questions:

A) If you were aware, or if you suspected, you were participating in a fraudulent investigation motivated by politics, please stand up.

=> Announce those people are fired for cause. Fired for violating their oath of office.

Escort them out.

Turn back to those remain seated.

A) If you *DID NOT KNOW* you were participating in a fraudulent FBI investigation, motivated by politics, please stand up.

=> Announce those people are fired for cause. Fired for not being smart enough to carry out their oath of office.

Escort them out.

The room should be empty.

#7) Wait, one more final detail. Perhaps you now have an adjacent room with a person(s) that no one in the FBI knows, nor understands exactly what they were doing there at the meeting. These people were not named on any list created by the FBI employees who conducted “Crossfire Hurricane” or the “Mueller probe.”  Well, that’s the CIA plant(s) in the room.

{Stands off Soapbox}