Kash Patel FBI Director

spaminator

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Kash Patel has been replaced as acting head of ATF, AP sources say
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Alanna Durkin Richer And Lolita C. Baldor
Published Apr 09, 2025 • 2 minute read

WASHINGTON — FBI Director Kash Patel was quietly removed weeks ago as the acting chief of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and has been replaced with the Army secretary, three people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.


It was not immediately clear why Patel was replaced by Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll to lead the Justice Department agency that’s responsible for enforcing the nation’s gun laws. One person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel move, said Patel was removed at the end of February, just days after he was sworn in.

But that was never publicly announced. Patel remains on the agency’s website and was identified as the acting director in an April 7 press release. Senior ATF leaders were only informed Wednesday of the change, according to another person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the move.

Driscoll will remain secretary of the Army, according to a defense official. Driscoll, 38, of North Carolina, had served as an adviser to Vice President JD Vance, whom he met when both were attending Yale Law School. He served in the Army for less than four years and left at the rank of first lieutenant.


He ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for a North Carolina congressional seat in 2020, getting about 8% of the vote in a crowded field of candidates.


Patel was named acting ATF director in an unusual arrangement in February just days after he was sworn in to lead the FBI, putting him in charge of two separate and sprawling Justice Department agencies.

Justice Department officials have been considering a plan to combine the ATF and the Drug Enforcement Administration into a single agency. The two agencies often work together, along with the FBI, but are both led by separate directors and are tasked with distinctly different missions.

The plan is designed to “achieve efficiencies in resources, case deconfliction, and regulatory efforts,” according to a recent memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

The ATF investigates things like violent crime, gun trafficking, arson and bombings. It also provides technical expertise in tracing guns used in crimes and analyzing intelligence in shooting investigations. The DEA, meanwhile, is in charge of enforcing the nation’s laws around drugs. Its agents are focused on combating criminal drug networks and stemming the illicit flow of fentanyl and other street drugs.
 

TheShadow

Council Member
Apr 24, 2020
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Ontario
In what way ? Our inner cities are slums , our national debt is through the roof . Immigration is out of control . We cannot trade between provinces . Please where is Canada better ?
if you can't look at the two and see it, you're blind.
 

pgs

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Nov 29, 2008
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B.C.
if you can't look at the two and see it, you're blind.
Not at all , you on the other hand see Canada as a beacon of light and hope . Meanwhile separation is rising its head again , this time not only in Quebec . Come explain where we are better ?
 

spaminator

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Dan Bongino to step down as FBI deputy director in January
Rumours swirling that the former Fox News talking head will resume his conservative radio show in new year.

Author of the article:Spiro Papuckoski
Published Dec 18, 2025 • Last updated 16 hours ago • 2 minute read

Dan Bongino, FBI deputy director, speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., Dec. 4, 2025.
Dan Bongino, FBI deputy director, speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., Dec. 4, 2025.
Dan Bongino announced he will step down as deputy director of the FBI in January, rumoured to be returning to his conservative radio show after less than a year on the job.


Bongino was selected to the post by FBI Director Kash Patel back in February, a month after Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office for a second presidential term. He assumed the role in mid-March.


“I will be leaving my position with the FBI in January,” Bongino confirmed to social platform X on Wednesday after reports suggested he was stepping down.



“I want to thank President Trump, (Attorney General Pam) Bondi, and Director Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose.”

The 51-year-old former radio host, who worked as a U.S. Secret Service agent before pivoting to political podcasting, assumed office on March 17 after he recorded his final podcast.

“Most importantly, I want to thank you, my fellow Americans, for the privilege to serve you,” Bongino said. “God bless America, and all those who defend Her.”

Patel praised Bongino’s time with the FBI in a statement shared to social media Wednesday.

“Dan is the best partner I could’ve asked for in helping restore this FBI,” Patel wrote.



The FBI director listed several accomplishments including the arrest of a suspect in the Jan. 5, 2021 pipe bombs left near the headquarters of both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee in Washington D.C.

Bongino “not only completed his mission – he far exceeded it,” Patel added. “We will miss him but I’m thankful he accepted the call to serve. Our country is better and safer for it.”

MS NOW reported Wednesday that Bongino told confidants he would not be returning to the FBI in the new year.

Trump teased the news before it was made official, telling reporters that Bongino “did a great job” but he “wants to go back to his show.”

According to Axios, The Dan Bongino show was ranked by Spotify at No. 56 in the U.S. when he was appointed to the FBI deputy director role.


Bongino began his law enforcement career at the New York Police Department before he joined the Secret Service in 1999 as a special agent. He worked on the presidential details for Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

He became a fixture on Fox News more than a decade ago, offering political commentary before landing the Saturday night show Unfiltered on the cable network from 2021 to 2023.

There appeared to be friction between Bongino and Bondi this summer over the release of files pertaining to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Before joining the FBI, Bongino questioned whether Epstein actually killed himself while in jail awaiting trial in August 2019.

But in May, he dismissed the conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s death and appeared to set the record straight in an interview on Fox News.

“I have seen the whole file,” Bongino said at the time. “He killed himself.”
 

pgs

Hall of Fame Member
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B.C.
I don't think there has been a more incompetent and unqualified administration in the USA's history.
Yes that old has been Biden with his handlers exercising the auto pen sure F—ded everything , now look at the result . We might lose our dairy monopoly . Terrible .
 

spaminator

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Did the FBI investigate a reporter who questioned Kash Patel's girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins' bureau security detail?
'It’s alarming. It’s unconstitutional. And it’s wrong'

Author of the article:Denette Wilford
Published Apr 23, 2026 • Last updated 21 hours ago • 3 minute read

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel speaks during a news conference at the at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building on April 21, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel speaks during a news conference at the at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building on April 21, 2026 in Washington, DC. Photo by Anna Moneymaker /Getty Images
The Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into a New York Times reporter last month after an article was published detailing how FBI Director Kash Patel provides his country singer girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, with round-the-clock security and transportation.


Reporter Elizabeth Williamson was reportedly investigated into whether she broke federal stalking laws, according to the Times, which cited a source with knowledge about the situation.


The report noted that some Department of Justice workers perceived the investigation as retaliation by Patel against Williamson.

However, the bureau told the outlet that “while investigators were concerned about how the aggressive reporting techniques crossed lines of stalking,” it was not pursuing a case against the reporter.

According to the report, there was only one phone call exchange between Williamson and Wilkins, though the writer also reached out to several people who had either worked with or knew Wilkins.

“The FBI’s attempt to criminalize routine reporting is a blatant violation of Elizabeth’s First Amendment rights and another attempt by this administration to prevent journalists from scrutinizing its actions,” Joseph Kahn, the Times’ executive editor, said.


“It’s alarming. It’s unconstitutional. And it’s wrong.”

The article in question
Williamson’s Feb. 28 article was a deep dive into the protective detail assigned to Wilkins, which included federal SWAT team members pulled from FBI field offices around the country who were assigned to follow her to her concerts and, in one instance, to a hair appointment.

Patel denied in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he used the bureau to have Williamson probed.

“Absolutely not,” Patel told Hannity, per the Daily Beast, before adding, “This same reporter delivered a baseless story which caused a direct threat-of-life to my girlfriend.”

New Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel speaks as his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins looks on during his swearing in ceremony in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on February 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.
New Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel speaks as his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins looks on during his swearing in ceremony in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on February 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Photo by Chip Somodevilla /Getty Images
Alden Welch Ruml, 26, of Massachusetts, was arrested last month after he allegedly sent Wilkins an email saying he would be “happy” when her face is “canoed by an assault ‌rifle,” and told the singer to “watch your back.”

Ruml pleaded not guilty last month and faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison if convicted, according to Reuters.


Patel told Hannity he directly blamed the Times story for Ruml’s actions against his girlfriend of three years.

“We are going to protect not only me and my loved ones but every American that is threatened.”

The FBI director’s use of federal resources has previously been questioned, including taking an FBI plane to fly to Italy, where he attended the men’s gold medal hockey game and was seen partying with Team USA afterward.

The FBI denied accusations that Patel was on a personal trip, saying it was there to play a major role in Olympic security, and that the director’s trip was planned months in advance to meet Italian law enforcement officials and the U.S. ambassador to Italy.



Patel’s defamation lawsuit
It’s been a busy week for Patel as he takes on the media.

He sued The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick for $250 million over a report that alleged Patel has “alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.”


Fitzpatrick included in the article FBI agents’ accounts of allegedly having to seek “SWAT-level breaching equipment” when they couldn’t rouse Patel from his room.

The defamation lawsuit, filed Monday morning in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, states that the Atlantic “published these statements with actual malice.”

Patel denied the accusations in a press conference on Tuesday, saying, “I’ve never been intoxicated on the job. Any one of you that wants to participate, bring it on — I’ll see you in court.”

The Atlantic called the suit “meritless,” adding it will “vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists.”
 
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