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

 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/03/politics/patel-fbi-national-security-division-firings-iran

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.

The dismantling of the National Security Division began early in the Trump administration. Attorney General Pam Bondi published a series of memos on her first day that paused all investigations into corporate foreign bribery, curtailed enforcement of a foreign agent registration law and deemphasized the criminal prosecutions of Russian oligarchs.

Some of the officials were transferred to other jobs inside the DOJ where they would have less influence on big decisions. In one instance, Bondi demoted the National Security Division’s acting head because she saw a portrait of former President Joe Biden was still hanging in the division’s front office. He was replaced by Trump’s official nominee to the position.