WASHINGTON (AP) — Hours after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, FBI Director Kash Patel declared online that “the subject” in the killing was in custody.
The lawsuit quotes Patel as having told Driscoll his job depended on firing people the White House wanted gone.
FBI’s priorities shift under Patel Patel arrived at the FBI having been a sharp critic of its leadership, including for investigations into Trump that he says politicized the institution.
Under Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, the FBI and Justice Department have become entangled in their own politically fraught inquiries, such as one into New York Attorney General Letitia James.
He’s moved quickly to remake the bureau, with the FBI and Justice Department working to investigate one of the Republican president’s chief grievances — the years-old Trump-Russia investigation.
WASHINGTON, AP — FBI Director Kash Patel announced online that “the subject” in the murder was under arrest just hours after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed. It wasn’t the shooter. The gunman was still at large, according to Utah officials, but the two men who had been arrested were promptly freed.
There was more to the false assurance than a slip. It brought to light the high stakes uncertainty surrounding Patel’s leadership of the bureau at a time when both his and the bureau’s credibility are under extreme strain.
In addition to questions regarding that investigation, Patel now faces bigger concerns about his ability to stabilize a federal law enforcement agency that is shattered by internal strife and political disputes as he prepares for congressional oversight hearings this coming week.
Democrats are ready to put pressure on Patel over his lawsuit-instigating purge of senior executives, his continued pursuit of President Donald Trump’s grievances after the conclusion of the Russia investigation, and a realignment of resources that prioritized the fight against street crime and illegal immigration, despite the agency’s decades-long focus on complex threats like public corruption and counterintelligence.
The use of polygraphs on certain agents in recent months to find leak sources, the addition of a co-deputy director to work alongside Dan Bongino, and the handling of files from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case are all additional concerns. On the other hand, Republicans are probably going to support him or shift the focus to the bureau’s detractors.
The hearings will be Patel’s most important stage to date and possibly the most telling test of his ability to persuade the public that the FBI, under his direction, can avoid making the same mistakes again during a period of political unrest and growing mistrust.
Gregory Brower, a former FBI executive who was the agency’s top congressional affairs official, stated that it is crucial that he performs exceptionally well at these oversight hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday due to the skepticism that some Senate members have had and continue to have.
Regarding Patel’s upcoming committee testimony, the FBI chose not to comment.
The subject, he said, was “in custody.”.
In addition to being the most recent instance of political violence in the United States, Kirk’s murder was always going to be the subject of intense scrutiny due to his friendships with Trump, Patel, and other administration officials and allies.
According to Patel’s social media account on X, “the subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody” while Salt Lake City investigators conducted their investigation. ” Utah Gov. At a news conference held almost simultaneously, Spencer Cox stated, “Whoever did this, we will find you,” implying that the search was ongoing. Soon after, Patel announced that the detained individual had been freed.
The message you want the public to hear is not conveyed by that,” said Chris O’Leary, a former FBI counterterrorism executive. It had the opposite effect. People begin to question what is going on. The situation is getting worse and looks like the Keystone Cops. “”.
A planned afternoon news conference was postponed the following day due to “rapid developments,” and Patel and Bongino took a plane to Utah. Instead, it took place in the evening. Despite appearing, Patel remained silent.
Patel complained angrily to FBI staff Thursday about what he saw as a lack of communication during the search, which lasted more than a day, claiming that he was not promptly shown a picture of the suspected shooter. According to two people with knowledge of the situation who spoke to The Associated Press under condition of anonymity and were not permitted to discuss it by name, that is the case. Details of the call were first reported by the New York Times.
Patel took credit for some investigative actions during a news conference on Friday morning, when authorities announced the arrest. He said, “At my direction, the FBI released the first set of FBI photos.”. “”.
The FBI released a statement in response to questions regarding the scrutiny of his performance, stating that it “will continue to be transparent with the American people” and that it had collaborated with local law enforcement to bring suspected shooter Tyler Robinson to justice. “.”.
Conservative circles took note of Patel’s overall response. Christopher Rufo, a well-known strategist, wrote on X that it was “time for Republicans to assess whether Kash Patel is the right man to run the FBI.”. “”.
Then there’s the purge of employees.
A lawsuit from three senior FBI executives who were fired in an August purge that erased decades of institutional experience and that Patel described as a Trump administration retribution campaign presented him with a different issue on the same day Kirk was killed.
Brian Driscoll, who served as acting FBI director during the early Trump administration, was one of them. He refused to provide the Justice Department with the names of the agents who looked into the Jan. The Capitol riot on June 6, 2021. In the lawsuit, Driscoll claimed that he was fired after a disagreement with Patel about administration demands to fire an FBI pilot who had been mistakenly identified on social media as the case agent in the Trump study of classified documents.
According to the lawsuit, Patel informed Driscoll that his employment was contingent upon dismissing those the White House desired removed. The FBI has not responded to inquiries about the lawsuit.
The other plaintiffs include Steve Jensen, who assisted in supervising FBI investigations into the Jan. scandal, and Spencer Evans, a former top agent in Las Vegas whose termination letter cited a “lack of reasonableness and overzealousness” in implementing COVID-19 policies while serving as a human resources official — a claim his lawyers deny. Six. Riot in the Capitol.
The chaos carries on a pattern that started even before Patel assumed leadership, when over six of the bureau’s top executives were fired on the grounds that the Justice Department could not be “trusted” to carry out Trump’s policies.
Since then, there has been a considerable change in the leadership of the FBI’s 55 field offices. Others departed due to pressure to accept new assignments or step down, while others left due to promotions and impending retirements. According to people familiar with the situation, weeks before Kirk was killed at a Utah college, the head of the Salt Lake City office—a seasoned counterterrorism investigator—was fired.
Michael Feinberg, an agent from Norfolk, Virginia, wrote a first-person narrative in July stating that he was warned to prepare for a polygraph test and a demotion due to his friendship with Peter Strzok, a lead FBI agent in the investigation into Russian involvement in Trump’s 2016 campaign who was fired for sending disparaging texts about Trump. Instead, Feinberg resigned.
The priorities of the FBI change under Patel.
Prior to joining the FBI, Patel was a harsh critic of its leadership, citing investigations into Trump as one example of how the agency had become politicized. Both the FBI and the Justice Department have been embroiled in politically sensitive investigations under Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, including one into New York Attorney General Letitia James.
With the FBI and Justice Department examining the long-running Trump-Russia probe, one of the Republican president’s main grievances, he has acted swiftly to restructure the bureau. Trump has frequently referred to that investigation as a “hoax” and “witch hunt,” even though it found no evidence of a criminal conspiracy involving Russia and his campaign. “”.
In an unusual statement, the Justice Department seemed to confirm that it was looking into former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan, two key figures in the Russia story who Patel named as “members of the Executive Branch Deep State” in a book he wrote. However, the statement did not specify the purpose of the investigation. According to multiple people familiar with the outreach, Bondi has ordered that evidence be presented to a grand jury, and agents and prosecutors have started asking former officials for information and interviews regarding the investigation.
Critics of the new Russia investigation see it as a clear attempt to move past the intense criticism the Justice Department and FBI received from some Trump supporters after they announced in July that they would not be making any more documents from the Epstein investigation public.
In keeping with Trump’s agenda, Patel has prioritized the FBI’s efforts to combat illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and street crime.
The FBI played a significant role in the federal government’s takeover of the Washington police department by working with partner agencies to make arrests for offenses that were not previously considered top FBI priorities, such as drunk driving.
However, some are worried that the focus on street crime may divert attention away from the complex issues of national security threats and public corruption that the bureau has long been largely, if not exclusively, in charge of looking into. One instance is the dissolution of a federal corruption squad in Washington during the spring of this year.
Matt DeSarno, who retired in 2022 as head of the Dallas field office, stated, “One of the big problems that I see is that the investigative programs that have been hurt the most this year are the ones that really only the FBI does or the FBI does better than anybody else.”.
