FBI Director Kash Patel fires four agents who investigated Trump's 2020 election overturn attempt

The FBI fired four agents on Nov. 6, 2025, who worked on the investigation during the Biden administration related to Donald Trump's alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, according to people familiar with the matter. The agents were initially fired on Monday, then reinstated later that day after 🏛️D.C. U.S. Attorney JPJeanine Pirro raised concerns, but they were fired again on Tuesday morning along with two additional employees.

The firings came under FBI Director Kash Patel, who was appointed by Trump and confirmed by the Senate in 2025. Patel has been a vocal Trump loyalist and previously worked on Trump's 2024 campaign. He has publicly stated his intention to purge the FBI of what he characterizes as "partisan actors." The FBI Agents Association, representing 14,000 agents, called the firings "erratic and arbitrary retribution."

The fired agents had worked on the investigation that led up to the special counsel case against Trump regarding efforts to overturn the 2020 election. That investigation ultimately resulted in federal charges, though the case was dismissed after Trump's 2024 election victory. The agents were not accused of misconduct during their investigative work, raising questions about whether they were fired for the investigation itself.

Career FBI agents have civil service protections under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 that make it difficult to fire them without cause. That law created the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), which hears appeals from federal employees who believe they were fired unfairly. The firings raise legal questions about whether agents can be removed for conducting lawful investigations into conduct that occurred before a president took office, rather than for misconduct.

FBI Director Kash Patel issued a statement saying the FBI was taking steps to ensure full accountability. He did not specify what misconduct, if any, the agents were accused of committing during their investigative work. The statement did not address why the agents were fired, reinstated, and then fired again within 48 hours.

The mass firing follows a pattern of Trump administration actions targeting federal employees who participated in investigations or prosecutions of Trump. In Sep. 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey on charges related to disclosure of sensitive information. The pattern suggests systematic retaliation against law enforcement officials who investigated Trump.

Civil service advocacy groups have raised concerns that the firings violate federal employee protections and could have a chilling effect on law enforcement investigations of politically powerful individuals. The FBI Agents Association warned that the chaotic firing and reinstatement process highlights the chaos that occurs when long-standing policies and processes are ignored.

Reporting from NBC News and other outlets described a whiplash sequence: at least two agents were told they were fired on Monday, learned hours later that those terminations were on hold after 🏛️D.C. U.S. Attorney JPJeanine Pirro intervened, and then woke up Tuesday to find that they and two additional employees had been fired anyway. That kind of fire–unfire–refire pattern is almost unheard of in a system that usually moves cautiously through documented performance reviews and formal discipline.

Former FBI officials and the FBI Agents Association warned that tying personnel decisions to who worked Trump-era cases sends a clear message to the rest of the bureau: investigate the president at your own risk. Civil service protections and MSPB appeals exist to make sure career agents can follow the evidence even when it leads to the Oval Office, but those protections work only if Congress, inspectors general, and the courts are willing to push back on political purges.