An MS Now report by Carol Leonnig asserted that President Trump’s FBI Director Kash Patel “fired a dozen members of an FBI counter-espionage team with a specialty in tracking Iran threats. Not the best time: when Trump last bombed Iran, it spawned several Iranian plots here to kill Trump.” Leonnig wasn’t alone in her assertions, as reporting in The New York Sun — in an article titled Exclusive: FBI Staffers Fired for Role in Mar-a-Lago Probe Were Assigned to Espionage Unit That Investigated Iranian Threats in America — also said Iran Espionage Unit members were dismissed.
The story claims that FBI agents working on potential Iran threats aimed inside the U.S. were dismissed for political reasons, because they had been involved previously in the DOJ’s “classified documents” case against Donald Trump — a case that was dropped after Trump won the 2024 election, with Special Counsel Jack Smith citing judicial precedents that prevented prosecutions against a sitting president.
[NOTE: The Mar-a-Lago classified documents case was widely considered the strongest of the cases pending against Trump at the time he won the election. The dismissed agents reportedly were among those who “scrutinized” Patel before he assumed the FBI directorship.]
The report about the FBI firings is receiving mixed reactions from Republicans. Trump’s Presidential Special Envoy and Kennedy Center Director Richard Grenell responded to the journalist who wrote the article, Carol Leonnig, “Another lie from Leonnig. She clearly has a thing for Kash.”
Another lie from Leonnig.
She clearly has a thing for Kash. https://t.co/UJszh9TXOB
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) March 3, 2026
Leonnig’s article asserts that Patel’s “gutting of the global espionage unit” just before the U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury — the bombing campaign in Iran — is of acute concern because, “a previous bombing strike on Iran ordered by Trump in his first presidency was followed by a series of Iranian operations on U.S. soil to try to assassinate Trump and some of his aides.”
[NOTE: Trump has himself acknowledged the existence of Iranian plots to assassinate him, having been warned by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) of Iran-linked threats during his presidential campaign in 2025.]
Former U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (R-VA), who is considered a “RINO” due to criticism of President Trump, responded: “You can’t make up this level of stupidity. @FBIDirectorKash -of beer guzzling fame – fired an elite counter espionage unit that investigates threats from foreign adversaries and specializes in Iran, just as we are at war with Iran and internal threats could increase. But don’t worry – his country singer girlfriend and her buddies have agents taking care of them – so they’re safe.”
The Wall Street Journal also reported this week on Patel, his priorities, and his travels with his girlfriend: “Some in the button-down FBI workforce voiced concern that Kash Patel’s party-boy image could strain partnerships with other law-enforcement agencies and make bureau leadership seem weak in the eyes of foreign adversaries.”
Some in the button-down FBI workforce voiced concern that Kash Patel’s party-boy image could strain partnerships with other law-enforcement agencies and make bureau leadership seem weak in the eyes of foreign adversaries. https://t.co/a6xgniBLsD pic.twitter.com/rNT3yOoeo3
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 3, 2026