FBI Fires Agents Who Investigated Trump’s Classified Documents Case
The Morning Sixpack - 02/26/2026 FBI firings, Cuba shootout, Clintons grilled, Davos exit, missing Epstein files, tariff refunds
Patel’s FBI Purge Expands: Agents Tied to Trump Document Probe Shown the Door
The FBI has fired at least 10 agents who worked on the investigation into President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago—another sweep in Director Kash Patel’s ongoing housecleaning.
Yes, the people who investigated the president are now out of a job—while the president is back in the Oval Office.
According to multiple people familiar with the matter, the latest terminations target employees who helped probe Trump’s retention of classified records at his Mar-a-Lago resort. That case led to a high-profile FBI search and federal charges accusing Trump of holding onto top-secret documents and obstructing efforts to retrieve them. The charges were later abandoned after Trump’s 2024 election victory, citing longstanding Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president.
The dismissals are part of a broader personnel purge under FBI Director Kash Patel, a Trump appointee who has pushed out dozens of employees seen as tied to investigations involving Trump or out of step with the administration’s priorities. The Justice Department has carried out similar firings of prosecutors since Trump returned to office.
The FBI Agents Association didn’t mince words. “These actions weaken the Bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilizing the workforce, undermining trust in leadership and jeopardizing the Bureau’s ability to meet its recruitment goals — ultimately putting the nation at greater risk,” the association said in a statement.
The firings surfaced the same day Patel told Reuters that the FBI under President Biden had subpoenaed his phone records and those of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles when they were private citizens in 2022 and 2023. Patel himself was subpoenaed in 2022 to testify before a grand jury in the Mar-a-Lago investigation and appeared under immunity.
Source: AP News
Editor: If this is what “restoring trust” looks like, buckle up. Washington isn’t draining the swamp—it’s rearranging the gators. Speaking of which… Whatever happened to that swamp prison in Florida? I think they called it “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Gunfire Off Cuba: Havana Says U.S.-Based Exiles Tried Armed Infiltration
Cuba says a Florida-registered speedboat carrying armed U.S.-based Cubans opened fire on its soldiers near Cayo Falcones—ending in four dead and six wounded in a rare open-sea shootout.
Havana calls it terrorism; Washington says not so fast.
Cuba’s government claims the 10 passengers were armed Cubans living in the U.S. attempting to infiltrate the island and “unleash terrorism.” Officials said the boat entered Cuban waters about a mile northeast of Cayo Falcones and fired first, injuring a Cuban officer before troops returned fire. Four people aboard the vessel were killed and six wounded, according to the Interior Ministry.
The government identified several passengers—including Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez—alleging they were wanted for involvement in “the promotion, planning, organization, financing, support or commission” of terrorist acts. It also said Duniel Hernández Santos was arrested and had confessed to helping coordinate the infiltration from inside Cuba. The Associated Press could not independently verify those claims.
In Washington, Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged caution. “Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that. It’s not something that happens every day. It’s something, frankly, that hasn’t happened with Cuba in a very long time,” Rubio said, adding that the U.S. would independently verify the facts. He stressed it was not a U.S. government operation and said Homeland Security and the Coast Guard are investigating.
The human toll is already clear. Misael Ortega Casanova told the AP his brother, Michel Ortega Casanova—identified by Cuba as one of the dead—had lived in the U.S. for over 20 years. “No one knew,” he said of his brother’s plans. “My mother is devastated.” He added of the group: “They became so obsessed that they didn’t think about the consequences nor their own lives.”
With tensions already high after new U.S. pressure on Cuba’s energy lifelines, this confrontation risks reopening an old chapter neither side has fully closed.
Source: AP News
Editor: Nothing says “regional stability” like bullets flying a mile off the coast. If this is the appetizer, the main course could get messy.
Trump Pushed Epstein Rumors for Years—Now the Clintons Are Under Oath
Bill and Hillary Clinton will testify before the House Oversight Committee over their past ties to Jeffrey Epstein, reviving a political saga that Donald Trump himself amplified for more than a decade.
After years of fueling Epstein conspiracies, Trump’s allies are now hauling the Clintons into a closed-door showdown. #PedoFiles
At CPAC in 2015, Trump hinted that Bill Clinton had “a lot of problems coming up in my opinion with the famous island with Jeffrey Epstein.” He repeated variations of that claim for years—often when questions turned to his own relationship with Epstein. Eleven years later, there’s still no evidence Clinton ever visited Epstein’s island, despite Trump’s claim he went 28 times.
Now the former president and former secretary of state will sit for depositions near their home in Chappaqua, New York. The committee rejected their request for a public hearing. Bill Clinton blasted the setup on X: “Who benefits from this arrangement? It’s not Epstein’s victims, who deserve justice. Not the public, who deserve the truth. It serves only partisan interests. This is not fact-finding, it’s pure politics.” He added that he would not be used as “a prop in a closed-door kangaroo court.”
The facts are messy but not new. Clinton took about half a dozen trips on Epstein’s jet in 2002 and 2003 and appears frequently in Justice Department document releases. There are photos of him with Epstein and aboard a private plane with unidentified women. None of the released files include direct correspondence between the two men, and Clinton has denied wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. An email cited in the files has Epstein himself saying Clinton never visited the island.
For the Clintons, this feels like familiar territory. From impeachment in 1998—when Republicans lost House seats and Newt Gingrich lost the speakership—to the endless swirl of conspiracy theories, they’ve seen this movie before. The Oversight Committee says it’s about transparency. Critics say it’s about politics. And Trump, who once boosted #ClintonBodyCount posts after Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide, is now directing his Justice Department to dig into Epstein’s ties to Democrats.
Source: The Washington Post
Editor: Washington’s favorite pastime isn’t governing—it’s reruns. If this ends like the last Clinton spectacle, somebody else may wind up holding the bag.
Davos Distraction: WEF Chief Børge Brende Steps Down Amid Epstein Scrutiny
World Economic Forum president Børge Brende is resigning after questions over his past meetings with Jeffrey Epstein cast a shadow over Davos’ top job. #PedoFiles
When your guest list includes Epstein—even for “business”—the optics tend to linger.
Brende, Norway’s former foreign minister, said he decided “after careful consideration” to step down as president and CEO of the World Economic Forum, the organization behind the annual Davos summit. “I believe now is the right moment for the Forum to continue its important work without distractions,” he said in a statement.
The WEF had opened an internal review earlier this month after newly released Epstein files showed Brende and the disgraced financier had dined together several times and exchanged messages. Brende told Norwegian broadcaster NRK he met Epstein only in business settings and was unaware of his criminal background.
WEF co-chairs André Hoffmann and Larry Fink said an independent review by outside counsel found “no additional concerns beyond what has been previously disclosed.” In other words, nothing new—but not nothing. Alois Zwinggi will serve as interim president and CEO.
Brende joins a growing list of high-profile figures facing renewed scrutiny as Epstein’s paper trail continues to surface. In global politics, perception isn’t just reality—it’s survival.
Source: AP News
Editor: Davos loves to lecture the world about accountability. Turns out it’s not immune to its own guestbook.
Missing Epstein Interviews Spark New Questions—And Todd Blanche Is in the Crosshairs #PedoFiles #Coverup
MSNBC hosts are raising alarms over missing Epstein case interviews—including records tied to a decades-old allegation against Donald Trump—while Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche faces scrutiny over what hasn’t been released.
If the files are complete, why do key interviews appear to be gone?
On “Morning Joe,” Willie Geist noted that while Republicans are hauling Hillary Clinton in for questioning over what he called her “tangential” ties to Jeffrey Epstein, more pressing questions linger about evidence logs referencing interviews that haven’t surfaced. Those logs, reportedly provided to attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell, list multiple interviews with a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was about 13—documents that are now nowhere to be found in the public releases.
Joe Scarborough didn’t hedge. “She’s being deposed today while the Justice Department clearly, clearly got caught in a cover-up by NPR, clearly got caught in a cover-up as reported by The New York Times, as reported by Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal. And again, it’s just a farce. The whole thing is a farce.” He added that directing attention to certain files while others remain unreleased “looks like such a cover-up.”
Scarborough pressed further: “If they have nothing to worry about, they should have released all the documents nine months ago. This story would have been over eight months ago, but they keep dragging it out.” Jonathan Lemire piled on, arguing the Justice Department’s claim of impartiality is undermined by optics and actions that appear political.
The allegation against Trump dates back decades and he has denied wrongdoing. The broader controversy now centers less on old accusations and more on whether the Justice Department’s handling of Epstein-related materials has been selective—or worse. Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s defense attorney before becoming deputy attorney general, is now linked to the debate over how those files were managed.
Source: Raw Story
Editor: When evidence logs list interviews that vanish into thin air, it’s not “transparency”—it’s a magic trick. And nobody likes a disappearing act in the Justice Department.
Tariffs Struck Down, $180 Billion Collected—Don’t Expect a Refund Check
The Supreme Court tossed the emergency tariffs, but the $180 billion collected mostly went from businesses to Washington—and shoppers shouldn’t count on seeing much of it back.
If you’re waiting for a tariff refund in the mail, don’t camp by the mailbox.
American companies paid the customs bills, then passed much of the cost on to consumers through higher prices. So when refunds come—if they come—they’ll likely go to the businesses first. “And if you do, it’ll be pennies on the dollar,” international trade lawyer Robert Shapiro said of potential consumer paybacks.
President Trump suggested the refund fight could drag on in court. “I guess it has to get litigated over for the next two years,” he said after the ruling. Even if companies recover money, some may pass savings along. Others, Shapiro noted bluntly, “They’ll just take it as a gain.”
Some Democrats want to skip the middleman. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have urged direct refund checks to families. But there’s a catch: tariff revenue flows into the federal government’s general fund—not a separate piggy bank. If Washington sends checks while companies also claim refunds, taxpayers could effectively pay twice.
Then there’s the practical headache. Tariff costs often ripple across supply chains—importers, wholesalers, retailers—before landing in your shopping cart. Proving how much of a bike, blender, or stuffed animal price was tariff-related could be, as policy expert Michael Ettlinger put it, “literally impossible.”
One exception? Companies that itemized tariff surcharges. Athletic wear brand Fabletics added visible fees at checkout, like $3.95 on a $69.95 sports bra. Transparent, yes. Refundable? That’s another story. For now, shoppers like Erin Vandenberg say they’d consider a class action suit just to claw something back.
Source: NPR
Editor: Washington figured out how to collect the money fast. Funny how returning it suddenly requires a two-year legal seminar and a PhD in supply chains.