Since taking office on February 20, Patel seems to have made three flights on FBI planes to Nashville, Tennessee, where her girlfriend, a country singer, lives; Two flights to Las Vegas, where he has a home; And a flight to New York, where he participated in a professional hockey game. The FBI policy in recent years has required directors to fly at government aircraft for security reasons.
Ben Williamson, the FBI -party door, confirmed the reduction in 8:30 am from the director’s director, but denied that Patel arrived late at the morning meetings. He said Patel still participates in five morning meetings a week – including three minors than the director’s summary.
“This change was based on people’s feedback at the agency – not the director’s program or participation,” said Williamson. “He still has 5 morning meetings a week. These meetings are critical to keeping America safe.”
Williamson refused to comment on whether the six trips cited by NBC News have involved work activities and said the new director is fulfilling all FBI ethics rules.
“The FBI does not comment on travel agreements for security purposes,” he said. “All ethical guidelines are rigorously followed.”
FBI officials said the director’s weekly teleconference with field office leaders was interrupted after “leak attempts” led to a series of news. But Patel still speaks regularly to the field office leaders.
The two current FBI employees said Patel sometimes seemed disinterested in the material and their intelligence collectors are struggling to create a briefing that captures their attention. Williamson, FBI’s gate, denied that Patel was disinterested and said the new director has worked tirelessly since taking office.
“Director Patel is working day and night to lead the agency and protect the homeland,” he added. “The results so far speak for themselves – and we’re just starting.”
Stacey Young, a former department of the Justice Department that co-founded Justice Connection, a group dedicated to supporting current and former DOJ employees, said the current and former employees of the Department of Defense and the FBI remain concerned about Patel’s approach.
“There is a growing sense among the ranks that there is a leading void,” said Young. “And that Bureau’s highest levels are more concerned with attending the favor with the president, retribution and leaks than with real work.”
Changes in the meetings schedule
The team that prepares the director’s summary tried to adapt to the Patel program, said that the current two and two ex -employees of the Justice Department and the Justice Department familiar with the subject.
“They were struggling to try to make Briefing in the morning because Patel failed to arrive on time,” said one employee. “So now they cut the Briefing from five days a week to just two days, Tuesday and Thursday. And even that has been a fight.”
Some FBI -employees – including some who are supporters of President Donald Trump – questioned Patel’s dedication to work.
“When you look at the things that people in America value Donald Trump, if nothing more, it is the amazing amount of work ethics it has,” said Kyle Seraphin, a special conservative FBI -FBI agent who had a close relationship with Patel, but became critical. “So you have Kash Patel, who is apparently taking time doing sporting events, doing a lot of public appearances, appearing with FIFA, going to UFC, flying in our private jet.”
A longtime patel member who asked not to be appointed defended the new director. “I have known Kash a long time ago,” they said. “The only thing he’s doing late at night is going to the gym.”
Anterior FBI directors
After Patel took office, the sources say, the FBI staff tried to maintain the morning routine of their predecessor, Christopher Wray. Ex -employees say Wray began his day in the J. Edgar Hoover building in the center of Washington, receiving an oral and written version of the president’s daily summary, or PDB, part of the most sensitive intelligence that the US government collects. They said Patel receives the written PDB every day.
At 8:30 in the morning, FBI officials presented Wray and his deputy the director’s summary of what they tended to be a major meeting full of high employees who define the agency’s agenda, the sources say.
Wray used to cross the street to the Justice Department headquarters soon the prosecutor -General Merrick Garland, say ex -authorities. They said Patel occasionally informs the prosecutor -General Pam Bondi in the late morning.
FBI officials in charge of the Summary of the Director of two days of Patel are trying to adapt it to Patel’s interests, according to the two FBI employees directly familiar with the matter.
“So now they strive to cure a briefing of things in which he may be interested, which makes them pull products and change things,” said one of the employees.
An FBI official speaking on anonymous condition to discuss a sensitive issue, said Patel is not interested in “not remotely true” briefings.
“I am with him myself in many of these meetings. He makes tons of questions and leads the team to reach the point and present solutions,” said the official. “For an individual of bad faith who likes to blur and gossip to NBC News, this may seem lack of interest. It is not. It is being efficient over time and wanting to correct problems.”
Travel to pro –
Patel – who plays the defender every Sunday in a men’s hockey league in the Washington area – participated in at least three NHL games while leading the FBI, according to photos posted on social media.
On April 6, Patel was spotted in New York, sitting next to the hockey, Great Wayne Gretzky, on the night of Washington Capital star Alex Ovechky broke Gretzky’s record for career goals. Flight data show that a FBI jet landed at New York’s Kennedy airport before the game and left later.
Williamson said Patel is a longtime Gretzky friend, adding, “Kash has and will always support his friends inside and off the ice.”
FBI jet flight records do not include passenger names, but show four landings in Nashville, where Patel’s girlfriend lives since early February and two landings in Las Vegas, where Patel has a home.
On March 21, Patel posted on his account of the meeting with Tennessee senators and governors and visiting the FBI Nashville Field Office.
On April 26, Patel had dinner with Poker champion Mike Matusow and Senator Ted Cruz from Texas, according to a Matusow social media post. Two days earlier, he was training at the headquarters of the Ultimate Fighting Championship near Las Vegas, with former Bodybuilding Champion Milošarčev, according to an šarčev social media post. A FBI jet landed in Las Vegas on April 24 and returned to the Washington, DC area on April 27, according to flight data.
On April 12, Patel traveled to Miami with Trump in the Air Force to watch a UFC match, having participated in a UFC fight a few weeks earlier in Las Vegas, where he spent time with actor Mel Gibson.
Social media and budget cuts
Some of Patel’s predecessors, included Wray and FBI’s former directors Robert Mueller and Louis Freeh, usually avoided the media and maintained a discreet profile. The former FBI director James Comey had a reputation to look for the spotlight and made speeches and interviews, but had little presence online.
Patel, who is 44 years old or less than many previous directors, has a different approach. Active on social media, Patel sometimes dressed with FBI equipment and mixed with field agents, either in training or in some real operations. Patel posted photos of himself on various social media platforms, including one of him firing a rifle in a FBI shooting field.
Recently, some FBI agents were dismayed to see that Patel was portrayed using a FBI field agent badge, they said two current and three FBI’s ex -authorities. Some agents argued that Patel has no right to use a badge because he did not go through the months of receiving training agents.
Williamson, his -void door, said Patel had the right to do so. “Director Patel has the honor of serving as director of FBI number 9 and use the badge,” said Williamson. “He is working day and night to serve the American people and address the growing number of threats to the country.”
Patel entered the FBI as someone who severely criticized him as a corrupt and anti-trump. But since he accepted his job, he sought to support the workforce, spreading his achievements. So far, he has not started the kind of radical change that his past suggested he could.
Although several FBI senior leaders were fired after Trump took office, so far there has been no kind of widespread staff in the FBI that occurred in some divisions in the Justice Department.
Patel announced a reorganization that changed the FBI structure, but the changes do not seem to have changed fundamentally as it operates.
Office has changed resources to reflect Trump government priorities to direct Central American Mexican drug cartels and gangs, and FBI agents had to help apply immigration. But the FBI agents are also still seeking their traditional missions of fighting terrorism, hunting spies and investigating various federal crimes.
On Thursday, however, in testimony of the Senate, Patel said he supported a White House budget proposal that includes a 5% cut in the FBI budget.
“My opinion is that we will do and agree with this budget as it is,” he said, “and will work for the operational need of the FBI.”