By Steve Neavling
Since taking over as FBI director, Kash Patel has quickly moved to reshape the bureau, ousting senior officials, forcing others into early retirement, and imposing polygraph tests to root out leaks.
His actions, backed by deputy Dan Bongino, reflect an effort to align the agency with former President Trump’s agenda.
“The F.B.I. has become so thoroughly compromised that it will remain a threat to the people unless drastic measures are taken,” Patel wrote in his book Government Gangsters.
The upheaval has sparked fear and frustration among agents, particularly as senior posts are filled with loyalists and focus shifts to immigration and past controversies, The New York Times reports. Bongino recently announced plans to revisit cases including the 2022 leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion on abortion, cocaine found at the White House, and the Jan. 6 Capitol pipe bombs, despite these cases largely falling outside the FBI’s original purview.
Critics warn that Patel and Bongino’s approach could undermine national security efforts, chilling agents from pursuing cases tied to Trump and dismantling the bureau’s institutional knowledge. The disbanding of the Washington field office’s elite public corruption squad, which handled inquiries into Trump’s 2020 election actions, has heightened these concerns.
Interviews with current and former officials describe a climate of retribution, where FBI leadership seems determined to protect Trump and his allies, reinforcing fears of a politicized agency.
The FBI did not respond to requests for comment.
