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When Kash Patel is under fire, FBI agents and staff get fired
An MS NOW analysis finds the FBI director often lashes out after his own bad press — by firing experienced agents and staffers.
Link to tweet
https://www.ms.now/news/under-fire-and-then-fired-when-kash-patels-behavior-becomes-the-story
FBI Director Kash Patel has spent much of his first year in office battling a string of insider accusations that he has jeopardized criminal probes with his inexperience, misused an FBI jet for joyriding and has run a “rudderless ship” as head of the bureau.
In key moments when he has faced public glare, Patel has chosen to fire sets of FBI agents and staff, an MS NOW analysis found.
The result has often been the regeneration of headlines. This time, however, they have been about the firings themselves, which Patel’s critics say appears designed to ingratiate him with President Donald Trump.
MS NOW found that in four key instances, Patel’s decision to fire FBI agents and staff came within hours or days of unflattering accounts emerging about him and his competency to run the FBI. The serial purges that followed, according to the FBI Agents Association, were unjustified, illegal and weakened the bureau, which has long been considered the world’s premier law enforcement agency.
“You know he has a trend, when he gets jammed up on something he literally fires people right after,” former FBI agent and MS NOW contributor Rob D’Amico said.......
But a similar pattern has played out several times when fresh accounts have raised questions about Patel’s conduct and ability to lead the bureau, MS NOW found. Inside the FBI, staff and agents have been tracking this pattern and growing concerned that Patel is jeopardizing the FBI’s mission as a byproduct of trying to eliminate his bad press and shore up support with Trump, according to multiple FBI sources who spoke to MSNOW.
“The FBI workforce is very intelligent and their job is to put together connected events,” D’Amico said. “They have noticed. They see it for what it is, actions of a selfish and insecure person.”
In key moments when he has faced public glare, Patel has chosen to fire sets of FBI agents and staff, an MS NOW analysis found.
The result has often been the regeneration of headlines. This time, however, they have been about the firings themselves, which Patel’s critics say appears designed to ingratiate him with President Donald Trump.
MS NOW found that in four key instances, Patel’s decision to fire FBI agents and staff came within hours or days of unflattering accounts emerging about him and his competency to run the FBI. The serial purges that followed, according to the FBI Agents Association, were unjustified, illegal and weakened the bureau, which has long been considered the world’s premier law enforcement agency.
“You know he has a trend, when he gets jammed up on something he literally fires people right after,” former FBI agent and MS NOW contributor Rob D’Amico said.......
But a similar pattern has played out several times when fresh accounts have raised questions about Patel’s conduct and ability to lead the bureau, MS NOW found. Inside the FBI, staff and agents have been tracking this pattern and growing concerned that Patel is jeopardizing the FBI’s mission as a byproduct of trying to eliminate his bad press and shore up support with Trump, according to multiple FBI sources who spoke to MSNOW.
“The FBI workforce is very intelligent and their job is to put together connected events,” D’Amico said. “They have noticed. They see it for what it is, actions of a selfish and insecure person.”