A former senior Trump administration official labeled Kash Patel “seriously dangerous,” claiming the FBI director has made him afraid of the U.S. government for the first time, according to a report.
President Donald Trump last December tapped Patel, a public defender who served in several roles in the first Trump administration, to lead the FBI, calling him an “‘America First’ fighter.” But under Patel’s leadership, several officials — current and former — have remarked on the shifting tactics at the bureau, scrutinizing his massive reassignments, firing decisions, and wavering between what he’s said and what he’s done now that he leads the bureau.
“I never had any fear of my own government till now,” the former official who worked with Patel told the New Yorker. “This guy is a seriously dangerous character. I’m one of those people who pooh-poohed the idea that Trump and his administration would go off the rails, but I was wrong.”
The Independent has reached out to the FBI for comment.
When he started, FBI leaders gave Patel “the benefit of the doubt,” a former senior bureau official told the magazine. “But they quickly figured out that he wasn’t really in control.”
Roughly 13,000 FBI agents — about a quarter of the bureau’s agents — have been reassigned to immigration enforcement duties, according to data obtained by Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner last month. Others have also been sent to aid Trump’s immigration and crime crackdowns in cities across the country.
“It’s a universe of fear now,” a current agent knowledgeable about staff assignments told the magazine. “A foreign counterintelligence agent was pulled off a case involving China to walk around D.C., making [driving while impaired] arrests.”
Some of the FBI director’s firing decisions have also come under scrutiny.
Patel fired several agents who were linked to special prosecutor Jack Smith’s federal cases against Trump regarding his handling of classified documents and his role in the January 6 Capitol riot. He also terminated a trainee who displayed a pride flag on his desk last year as well as more than a dozen agents who were photographed kneeling during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
Three top officials at the bureau who Patel fired earlier this year — Brian Driscoll, Steven Jensen, and Spencer Evans — sued him and Attorney General Pam Bondi in September, alleging wrongful termination. The push for the firings seemed to have come from Patel’s “superiors,” according to the complaint.
“Patel explained that he had to fire the people his superiors told him to fire, because his ability to keep his own job depended on the removal of the agents who worked on cases involving the President,” the filing states. “Patel explained that there was nothing he or Driscoll could do to stop these or any other firings, because ‘the FBI tried to put the President in jail and he hasn’t forgotten it.’”
Others seemed to back up Patel. A senior official who recently left the FBI told the New Yorker that Patel has indicated that he would have retained some of those who have been terminated, if it were up to him and him alone.
“He’s just telling everyone who’ll listen, ‘Yeah, I just did this to keep my job,’” a current agent told the outlet.
Some have noted that Patel’s past comments don’t square with his actions now that he’s in charge of the bureau.
In his 2023 memoir Government Gangsters, he wrote: “Nobody wants the president to have unilateral authority to deploy military troops within America as he pleases. That’s a recipe for tyranny.” Now, as FBI director, Patel has stood by Trump as he’s deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., Memphis, and Los Angeles.
The FBI director has also defended Trump when it comes to the Epstein Files.
While appearing on Benny Johnson’s podcast in 2023, Patel was asked why he believed the FBI was “protecting the world’s foremost predator” by not releasing the so-called “client list.” Patel replied: “Simple. Because of who’s on that list.” Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
But this July, a DOJ memo stated that there was no evidence to support the existence of a client list. Patel told lawmakers in September that court orders bar him from making public other documents related to Epstein in FBI custody.
The disparity between Patel’s public statements and his work as FBI director is “an illustration of just how juvenile the guy is,” the former senior Trump administration official told the magazine.
Separate from Trump matters, Patel’s personal use of government aircraft, such as attending sporting events, have raised eyebrows. The FBI director has been spotted attending UFC fights in Vegas and Miami.
“You never saw Mueller, Wray, or Comey at U.F.C. matches,” a current agent said of the three FBI directors preceding Patel.
This week, his 27-year-old girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, was granted FBI protection — a move that former officials criticized.
A former senior agent told the New Yorker: “None of the other F.B.I. directors had executive protection for their wives, let alone a girlfriend.”
Christopher O’Leary, who served in the bureau for two decades, told MS NOW: “There is no legitimate justification for this. This is a clear abuse of position and misuse of government resources.” O’Leary added: “She is not his spouse, does not live in the same house or even the same city.”
Last month, social media users slammed Patel for using a government jet to visit Wilkins. In 2023, Patel criticized former FBI Director Christopher Wray for having spent “taxpayer dollars to hop around the country.”
Defending his use of the government aircraft, Patel has told lawmakers that “Congress made it mandatory” for him to use the government plane for any travel. He’s required, as FBI director, to use government planes for their secure communications equipment; he’s also required to reimburse for his personal travel. Patel has said he reimburses the government for private travel, the New Yorker reported.
“What is it like to be the head of the F.B.I.?” Joe Rogan asked Patel in a June podcast episode. “How weird is that?”
“It’s completely effing wild,” Patel replied. “I mean, I don’t even know how to describe it.”
