The FBI has forced out a special agent who previously helped oversee public corruption cases, including an investigation that became part of former special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into President Donald Trump, according to two sources familiar with the matter — another apparent casualty of the Trump administration’s retribution push.
Aaron Tapp, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Antonio office, was previously the deputy assistant director of the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI headquarters.
Tapp will be retiring from the bureau later this month, a third person briefed on the matter told CNN.
For a time he had oversight of probes into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. One of these investigations — known as Arctic Frost — focused on the fake electors scheme, in which Trump allies sought to have Trump electors counted as electoral college votes from states that Joe Biden won.
In recent weeks, Republicans have released FBI records showing details of the Arctic Frost investigation and accused Smith and FBI leaders of political motives in using grand jury subpoenas to obtain phone records of nine GOP lawmakers. The records, obtained in 2023, covered four days surrounding the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot . The FBI didn’t obtain the contents of the calls. Smith has denied any political motives and said the subpoenas were routine investigative tools.
Tapp has been with the FBI for more than 20 years, according to his bio on the FBI’s website.
CNN has reached out to the FBI’s headquarters and San Antonio field office for comment.
Three former senior FBI officials summarily fired in August are suing FBI Director Kash Patel and the Trump administration, alleging that their terminations were part of a White House-directed purge driven at least in part by social media bullying from MAGA loyalists, CNN reported last month.
Brian Driscoll, the former acting FBI director for a month at the start of the second Trump administration; Steven Jensen, who Patel installed as assistant director in charge the Washington field office; and Spencer Evans, who led the Las Vegas field office, allege that Patel has politicized the FBI to protect his own job.
“Patel not only acted unlawfully but deliberately chose to prioritize politicizing the FBI over protecting the American people,” the lawsuit states.
The 68-page complaint provided first-hand accounts from top FBI officials of the tumultuous first few weeks of Trump’s second term. Driscoll and other senior officials resisted efforts to try to fire or otherwise punish all FBI agents or employees for simply having worked on criminal investigations of Trump, the complaint says.
Patel and other officials, during Senate confirmation hearings, had dismissed any plans for political retribution, despite Trump’s repeated threats during his campaign rallies to do exactly that.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Aaron Tapp had been fired. It has been updated to reflect that he has been forced out and will be retiring.
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