A Year Inside Kash Patel's F.B.I.

[demmiblue]

When he returned to office last year, President Trump called the F.B.I. a “corrupt” agency in need of overhaul. He had by then been the subject of three F.B.I. investigations: Agents examined his 2016 campaign’s alleged ties to Russia, his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Though all three inquiries took place in part or entirely under Christopher Wray, the F.B.I. director Trump appointed, he repeatedly accused the bureau of mounting a partisan attack against him.

To replace Wray, Trump chose Kash Patel, a former public defender and intelligence official who had never worked for the F.B.I. and had spun conspiracy theories about the bureau. Since Patel’s confirmation last February, the F.B.I. has undergone a transformation that has upended its nonpartisan rules and norms, deeply rattling many of its 38,000 employees.

Patel has fired agents who worked on the Trump investigations and radically changed the bureau’s mission. More than 20 percent of the F.B.I.’s work force has been assigned to immigration enforcement, pulling agents and analysts away from investigating public corruption, cybercrime, white-collar crime, drug trafficking and terrorism. Patel has also been embroiled in controversies over his use of government resources, his temperament and missteps in high-profile investigations.

We interviewed 45 employees who work at the F.B.I. or who left during Trump’s second term, as well as many other current and former government officials. Beginning with Trump’s selection of Patel, our sources narrated the events that most troubled them over the last year. Many details of what we learned are reported here for the first time.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/01/22/magazine/trump-kash-patel-fbi-agents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GVA.WSTh.EmLDrwqqTZeo&smid=url-share

If you have any capacity for horror left, here is a long article on Kash Patel and the current state of the FBI.

h/t @donmoyn.bsky.social

gift article link:

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

— bjkeefe (@bjkeefe.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T23:08:21.637Z

[LymphocyteLover]

1. it's a purely corrupt partisan agency-- another trumpian disgrace

[mwmisses4289]

2. Yet another No shit Sherlock article.

NYT was the loudest cheerleader posting drivel about how great trump supposedly was going to be and how horrible Biden and Harris might be.
Now they are finding out they were wrong and they are not happy about it.

[Roxi]

4. I'll take it

At this point, anything that records exactly what this regime has done is welcome.

Yes, they’re still trying to hold on to their hero (yuck), but I’m glad some people are still fighting against that.

[Roxi]

3. Can you imagine?

Can anyone comprehend how it must feel for those agents to spend their lives trying to keep our country safe, only for all of that to happen?

So many dedicated people being fired for no real reason makes me angry and sad.

[LymphocyteLover]

5. This bit about Kash Patel's trip to UK is freaking insane!!!!! He's the biggest fucking clown imaginable.

There's supposed to be a Bluesky link but it's not showing up for me after posting it

Here's the bit:

Senior executive 2: Every May, there’s a Five Eyes conference with the head of every intelligence agency. This year it was in the U.K. Kash Patel is going. In the lead-up to that, his detail starts making crazy requests. He’s got special requirements on everything. And the Brits are getting pissed.

Before the conference, his staff says he’s unhappy because he doesn’t like meetings in office settings. What he wants is social events. He wants Premier soccer games. He wants to go jet skiing. He’d like a helicopter tour. Everyone who heard about this was like: Hold on. Is he really going to ask the MI5 director to go jet skiing instead of meeting? The schedule is set, and every Five Eyes partner is doing this. They can’t just say that he’s not participating and instead he wants to go to a Premier soccer game. This is a job, guys.

His staff only cared about three things: what his meals were, when his workouts would be and what his entertainment would be. The biggest plan is how he’s going to get his girlfriend in there so she can go to Windsor Castle. He’s got Nicole Rucker as his assistant, like a true executive concierge. And when she’s not getting the food or the workout she wants, she’ll just start screaming at people, Make it happen!

His staff was briefed multiple times that the Brits were going to want to talk about an F.B.I. position in London that has been pulled. The F.B.I. is arguably their most important partner. MI5 is 5,000 people. The F.B.I. is 38,000. If MI5 ceased to exist, it would be very bad for us. If we cease to exist, it would be an existential threat for them. That person was working on a ton of sensitive stuff, including embassy penetrations and technology, and they want this position back. So Ken McCallum, the MI5 director, goes to Kash Patel at the conference and says: Hey, we really need this position. It’s so important for our mutual benefit. And Kash says: Yep, that person’s going nowhere. She’s absolutely staying. And the Brits rejoice.

Two weeks later, he reverses himself and removes her. The Brits are outraged. Kash will make promises and he will break them, and he doesn’t worry about that.

On that trip, the heads of intelligence for the Five Eyes went to Windsor Castle and met with the king. There was a photo taken of all the Five Eyes people, some of whom are nondisclosed, meaning their affiliation with the British intelligence service isn’t public. The Brits forwarded that picture as a keepsake for the individuals. They prefaced it with, This isn’t to be shared. But Kash has decided he wants to post it on social media. They have people trying to negotiate with the Brits about whether that’s possible. They’re fighting with the director’s office, like: You cannot post this. Do not do that. And they’re arguing, He wants a picture out.