FBI Director Kash Patel has said the FBI, under the Biden administration, obtained his and Susie Wiles’s phone records when they were both private citizens and attempted to conceal the efforts.
In an exclusive with Reuters, Patel described the seizing of phone records and the attempt to hide the action as an example of overreach by unelected officials under the former president.
“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 told Reuters in a statement.
Patel said the subpoena, which came prior to him becoming FBI director and Wiles the White House chief of staff, involved phone records known as toll records, which detail the timing and recipients of phone calls made—not the content of what was said—in 2022 and 2023 amid former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal probe of President Donald Trump.
The FBI’s actions took place as part of Smith’s now-dismissed investigation of Trump challenging the 2020 election results and alleged retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence. Smith took over that probe in November 2022.
The FBI director said his and Wiles’s phone records were filed by the Biden-era FBI in a way that made it difficult for him and other officials to find when he took over the agency a year ago. He said the agency found the toll records in files categorized as “Prohibited,” making them hard to locate on the FBI’s computer system.
Patel said he has since ended his agency’s ability to categorize files as “Prohibited.”
Investigators may collect toll records through a subpoena without a judge’s approval, including for high-profile figures. They can collect the information while determining facts in a case and who may be involved.
The former special counsel, who was appointed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, also told Congress last year that the phone records were part of investigative efforts to verify the timeline of events around the Jan. 6 Capitol breach and that he “followed Justice Department policies, observed legal requirements, and took actions based on the facts and the law.”
In December 2025, the House Judiciary Committee released the video and transcript of Smith’s deposition regarding his investigation into Trump. In those conversations with lawmakers, Smith said he believed he had proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” for the charges he brought against the then-former president. He denied his investigations were politically motivated.
The FBI and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Classified Documents Probe
Earlier this week, a federal judge said Smith’s report on his probe into Trump’s alleged hiding of classified documents can never be released. Smith previously told Congress that court orders restrict him from discussing any part of the investigation not already disclosed in court filings.
Smith charged Trump, who denied any wrongdoing, with felonies in his investigation in 2023 before a federal judge ultimately dismissed the case. The former special counsel later dropped an appeal of the judge’s ruling after Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election.
Reuters contributed to this report.
