As this week got underway, there were some unconfirmed reports about FBI Director Kash Patel firing several officials linked to the faux controversy known as “Arctic Frost,” though soon after, there were related reports that the firings had been reversed.

At about the same time, The New York Times reported that Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., had intervened to “halt the dismissal” of some veteran FBI agents, insisting that their ouster “would hamper work on ongoing cases.”....

The FBI Agents Association was not pleased. Its written statement read in part:

The actions yesterday — in which FBI Special Agents were terminated and then reinstated shortly after, and then only to be fired again today — highlight the chaos that occurs when long-standing policies and processes are ignored. An Agent simply being assigned to an investigation and conducting it appropriately within the law should never be grounds for termination. Director Patel has disregarded the law and launched a campaign of erratic and arbitrary retribution. FBI Agents deal in facts, and we urge Director Patel to do the same. When leadership abandons due process, it doesn’t just erode trust — it makes the American public less safe.

If “Arctic Frost” were a genuine controversy, it might be easier to understand Patel’s crusade against those involved. But there is no actual scandal, and there’s still no evidence of Smith or anyone associated with his investigations having done anything wrong......

The firings have reportedly destabilized the bureau. Indeed, reporting on the chaos, MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian noted in early August that the “purge that is ongoing is without precedent in the modern history of the bureau. It raises questions about whether the Trump administration is trying to turn the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency into an instrument of presidential whim — exactly the thing he baselessly accused his opponent of doing.”

That was roughly three months ago, and the problem is far worse now. Evidently, the unqualified former podcast personality and conspiracy theorist whom Republicans put in charge of the FBI doesn’t care.