Washington DC.- The FBI has dismissed four agents who served under former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team investigating ex-President Donald Trump, though some of those terminations were later rescinded, Reuters reported, citing five people familiar with the matter.
The move marks the latest in a growing wave of personnel shakeups within the bureau, largely affecting officials tied to investigations into Trump and his allies.
One of the agents, Jeremy Desor, recently became the target of online harassment after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) released over 1,000 pages of subpoenas from Smith’s investigation — code-named “Arctic Frost.”
The probe centered on Trump’s attempts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
The released documents included the full names of FBI and Justice Department employees involved, sparking safety and privacy concerns.
Another dismissed agent, Jamie Garman, had been placed on administrative leave weeks earlier, following Grassley’s disclosure that Smith’s team sought limited “tolling data” — call records without message content — from the phones of eight Republican senators and one House member surrounding the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Two others, Blaire Toleman and David Geist, were reportedly told Monday their firings were reversed, according to four sources familiar with the situation.
Toleman, who now works out of the FBI’s Chicago office, previously led a public corruption squad that was disbanded earlier this year.
Geist, once an assistant special agent in charge of the Washington Field Office, currently serves in an elite crisis response unit specializing in hostage rescue and critical incidents.
Several additional agents were also reportedly fired and then reinstated on the same day, though the reasons for the reversals remain unclear.
The FBI has not issued a formal statement, and multiple attempts by Reuters to reach both the agency and the affected agents for comment were unsuccessful.
Grassley, who has been at the forefront of Republican efforts to question Smith’s handling of the Trump probes, defended the disclosures, saying:
“The public has a right to know how the government’s spending their hard-earned tax dollars, and if agents were engaged in wrongdoing they ought to be held accountable. Transparency brings accountability.”
However, Smith’s legal team has countered accusations that the FBI “spied” on lawmakers, calling the claims “inaccurate assertions” and stressing that the tolling data collection was a standard part of criminal investigations — capturing only call durations and general locations, not content.
The recent dismissals are part of a larger trend. Since January, dozens of FBI agents, prosecutors, and Justice Department staff who worked on January 6 and Trump-related investigations have reportedly been fired or reassigned.
Two agents involved in reviewing lawmakers’ phone data were also dismissed in October — around the same time Garman was placed on leave.
Adding to the controversy, the FBI’s former acting director Brian Driscoll and the former head of the Washington Field Office have sued FBI Director Kash Patel and the Justice Department, alleging the White House pressured the bureau to fire personnel connected to Trump-related cases.
The case has intensified concerns over political interference within federal law enforcement, as the U.S. continues to grapple with the fallout of the 2020 election investigations and their impact on institutional integrity.
