FBI agents have lifted the lid on alleged diva-like behavior by Director Kash Patel as they accused him of using the agency as a personal branding platform.
Current and former agents told Axios that this included instructing staff to alert him to ‘noteworthy arrests’ so he could appear for media coverage.
The security chief also demanded agents to keep interactions with him on such occasions to a minimum and insisted on wearing an FBI windbreaker instead of a suit, the outlet reports.
‘You’re the director of the FBI. Wear a f***ing suit,’ one recently retired agent fumed to Axios.
Patel rose to the FBI’s top job by vowing to dismantle entrenched Washington bureaucracy but has come under scrutiny for bungling responses to several security incidents.
Concerns about his leadership were recently detailed in a leaked dossier written by current and former agents and first obtained by the New York Post, which outlined what they called repeated management failures.
Among the incidents cited was Patel’s alleged meltdown following Charlie Kirk‘s killing in Utah.
His staffers also complained to Axios about his social media etiquette after the assassination, citing a post where he hinted at an arrest in the probe before a suspect was actually in custody.
Hellbound and Down 