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FBI Director Kash Patel said Wednesday that the agency subpoenaed phone records belonging to him and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles when they were private citizens, as part of a federal investigation into President Donald Trump.
Patel told Reuters that the subpoenas were issued in 2022 and 2023, during the period when Special Counsel Jack Smith was investigating whether President Trump interfered with the 2020 election and improperly retained classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Smith was appointed in November 2022 to oversee the probe.
“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 in a statement to Reuters.
Patel said the records were stored in files labeled “Prohibited,” which made them difficult to locate after he assumed leadership of the FBI in February 2025. He said he has since ended the bureau’s ability to categorize files that way.
Patel described the actions as an example of government overreach under the Biden administration, echoing criticism frequently voiced by President Trump and his allies.
Patel said he did not know why investigators sought his and Wiles’ records. Both were close advisers to President Trump during the period under investigation and were interviewed as part of Smith’s inquiry.
Smith charged Trump in 2023 with felony offenses related to the documents case, though the charges were later dismissed. Smith dropped his appeal after President Trump won reelection. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
Smith has previously testified that investigators followed Justice Department policies and legal requirements in obtaining phone records, including those of lawmakers, during related investigations.
