Agent Mulder, you have consistently demonstrated reckless and unprofessional behavior. You continuously waste the Bureau's time and resources chasing UFOs and bigfoot. You can't even work a simple wiretap case without getting distracted by aliens and disappearing for a week. You're a critical national security risk who's being monitored by god knows how many other agencies. I've got chain-smoking deep state assholes breathing down my neck every day because of your shenanigans. You have given me every official justification to terminate your employment and revoke all your clearences on multiple occasions. Well, enough is enough, Mulder. I'm reopening the X-Files. Get back to work.

>>212839472 (OP)
Smoking Man did more to keep Mulder employed than he did to get him fired.

>>212839472 (OP)
Sir, Agent Mulder and I have a 75% case resolution rate which is above the FBI standard.

>>212839528
I'm still pretty early in the show, but the implication at the start of season 2 seems to be that Skinner is protecting Mulder out of sheer spite for the smoking man bossing him around.

>>212839472 (OP)
Mulder did some shit at the bureau that got him the pick of any assignment. He picked the x files.
And really the expenses were mostly dumpy hotels and plane tickets.