EXCLUSIVE: A previously identified anti-Trump FBI agent allegedly broke protocol and played a critical role in opening and advancing the bureau’s original investigation related to the 2020 election, tying President Trump to the probe without sufficient predication.

Two senior Republican lawmakers released protected whistleblower disclosures Thursday revealing how an anti-FBI agent went outside established agency protocols for opening probes to help launch the federal election interference case against President Trump.

Sen. Chuck Grassley opened the confirmation of Kash Patel for FBI director by revealing several emails regarding investigations into President Trump.

Iowa, on Wednesday described several FBI internal emails that appeared to discuss the early stages of the bureau's investigation into President Donald Trump and his use of fake electors to overturn the 2020 election.

Plus: Kash Patel, Trump's pick to lead the FBI, and his role in Jan. 6 misinformation | Trump pledges sweeping tariffs on steel, semiconductors

The Justice Department employees had been involved in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation that led to Trump's classified documents and Jan. 6 cases.

Mr. Trump has declared on Truth Social that Mr. Smith “should be prosecuted for election interference & prosecutorial misconduct.” The president has also called him a “career criminal.” He also reposted the radio host Mark Levin’s view that “Jack Smith must go to prison.”

Top House Democrats say that the way in which Jack Smith's staffers were fired "very likely violated longstanding federal laws."

Trump vowed to rid the Justice Department of what he says is partisan bias. Ex-officials say he's using retaliation and intimidation to thwart potential investigations of his second term.

The DOJ official argued that the firings are in line with the Trump administration’s “mission of ending the weaponization of government.”

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding to see the volume of special counsel Jack Smith’s report dealing with the Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation, asserting it has