Their termination on Wednesday, confirmed by the BBC’s media partner CBS News, was announced shortly after FBI director Kash Patel told Reuters that federal agents subpoenaed his phone records when he was a private citizen during the documents probe.

Susie Wiles, now White House chief of staff, also had her phone records subpoenaed when she was a private citizen as part of the investigation.

Patel did not offer any evidence of wrongdoing by the FBI staffers who were fired.

After Trump left the White House in 2021, Special Counsel Jack Smith led two federal investigations into now-President Trump. One case was focused on whether Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election results. The other involved classified documents Trump brought back to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and his efforts to obstruct the US Department of Justice from later retrieving them