Inside Patel’s first week: Internal upheaval at the FBI – some of his own making

FBI Director Kash Patel walked into his new office on the seventh floor of the bureau’s headquarters last week and made an immediate order – he wanted new carpeting and window coverings, calling the office “dingy.”

FBI Director Kash Patel walked into his new office on the seventh floor of the bureau’s headquarters last week and made an immediate order – he wanted new carpeting and window coverings, calling the office “dingy.” Patel’s plans to remake the FBI go well beyond redecorating. He wants to overhaul the bureau in fundamental ways that could drastically realign its workforce and the scope of its mission. But like nearly every renovation project, it hasn’t all gone as planned. Even before Patel arrived at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington as its newly confirmed director last Thursday, there was tension between Trump appointees and career officials at the bureau. A plan to quickly fire more than 100 mid-level and senior employees blew up into a weeklong standoff between Trump’s acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, and the FBI’s acting leaders, Brian Driscoll and Robert Kissane, who Bove had installed, according to people briefed on the matter. Bove’s demands for a list of more than 5,000 employees, mostly those associated with January 6, 2021, cases, prompted a chain of events that has blown back on Patel, making his initial week on the job more difficult than it was already going to be. A handful of former agents who were early supporters of Patel have already stepped away from an advisory panel that was designed to build his credibility inside the FBI, people briefed on the matter said. Presented with Bove’s list of mid-and-upper level employees to oust, mostly over their association with January 6 and Trump investigations, some advisory members quickly rebelled.