A 115-page report compiled from interviews with dozens of current and former FBI agents found that FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have turned the agency into a ‘circus,’ with agents describing the two men as clowns more obsessed with their personal image and posting to social media than they are with running the law enforcement agency.
The report, which was prepared for the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and obtained by the New York Post, found that agents believe Patel is "in over his head" and that he "has neither the breadth of experience nor the bearing an FBI director needs to be successful.” Agents also described Bongino as "something of a clown" and said both men are "too often concerned with building (their own) personal resumes" than they are with leading the agency.
In all, the report says that Patel and Bongino have turned the FBI into “rudderless ship,” and that as a result the bureau is “all f'd up.” Allegedly, the two men’s obsession with punishing anyone deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump has created a “culture of mistrust and uncertainty among the ranks.”
The report gives specific examples of the two mens' buffoonery.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, shown in 2020.
For example, agents say Patel and Bongino's politicization of the FBI has left morale in the toilet, and that there is no money to investigate gang and violent crime through new task forces.
It also describes an alleged incident following the September murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in which Patel refused to exit a plane for a news conference until he was given an FBI jacket that fit him. In the end, Patel was reportedly given a female officer's jacket, which he demanded be adorned with FBI patches before he would go to the news conference. And then once at the news conference, he allegedly left agents aghast when he took personal credit for the investigation into Kirk's death.
The report comes at a perilous time for Patel.
In September, there were reports that the White House was making contingency plans to replace Patel after he botched the Kirk investigation.
Patel has also been forced to defend his use of a private FBI jet to visit his girlfriend and attend extravagant events—actions that have led agents to give him the pejorative nickname the "Make-a-Wish Director,” referencing the charity that gives elaborate trips to children who are sick or dying.
And MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) reported before the Thanksgiving holiday that Patel's days as FBI chief may be numbered as President Donald Trump is growing tired of the negative headlines Patel has generated, though White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the report was "made up."
Democrats blasted Patel after the report became public.
“I don’t mind that FBI Director Kash Patel had to wear a women’s (size medium) jacket to cosplay as someone in charge. I just wish he’d focus on stopping the rampant domestic terrorism happening on his watch,” Rep. Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, wrote in a post on X.
