Last week Kash Patel fired a dozen FBI agents he claimed investigated Trump’s classified documents case. It turns out those agents were members of a unit in counter espionage of foreign adversaries, and their specialty was Iran, according to half a dozen people in the know.
The gutting of the unit known as CI-12 came just days before Trump ordered the launch of Operation Epic Fury, bombing targets in Iran, and killing their supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
CI-12 conducts investigations of illegal media leaks and mishandling of classified documents, but also has veteran agents trained on threats and spy operations focused on the Middle East, as well as Cuba and other terrorist organizations. It does not investigate threats from Russia or China.
In his first term when Trump ordered strikes on General Qasem Soleimani, the event was followed by a series of Iranian operations on U.S. soil to try to assassinate Trump and some of his aides, including Mike Pompeo and John Bolton.