“It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records — along with those of now White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.”
The FBI under Joe Biden subpoenaed the phone records of now-FBI Director Kash Patel and now-White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in 2022 and 2023, when both were private citizens. The phone records grab was part of the Biden administration's investigation into Donald Trump.
According to a report by Fox News, the subpoenas were issued during the Biden administration while Special Counsel Jack Smith was investigating Trump over his actions following the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. At least 10 current FBI employees were dismissed following the revelations of the FBI targeting Patel and Wiles.
Smith charged Trump in 2023 with multiple felony offenses. After Trump’s re-election in 2024, he dropped the cases. Reuters reported that the FBI located the phone records in files that were labeled “prohibited.”
Patel commented on the revelation in a statement to Fox News, saying that the fact that this occurred was "outrageous and deeply alarming.” He has also stated that the FBI recently ended the ability to categorize certain files as “prohibited.”
"It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records — along with those of now White House chief of staff Susie Wiles — using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight," Patel said.
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