FBI Director Kash Patel has alarmed some members of the bureau by taking what they say is an overly casual approach to the role.
President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s domestic intelligence and security service is a former prosecutor and political adviser who had little if any law enforcement experience when the president nominated him to head the bureau.
But instead of throwing himself into the job and trying to gain credibility with the officials he’s been tasked with leading, a dozen current and former officials at the FBI and Department of Justice said they worried he wasn’t taking the position seriously enough, NBC News reported.
For decades, the FBI chief has received an 8:30 a.m. daily “director’s brief” with the most important information gathered from thousands of agents and analysts. Patel reportedly had trouble making the morning briefing, so it was dropped from five days a week to two.
“Even that has been a struggle,” an unnamed official told NBC.
Two current FBI officials said Patel sometimes seems uninterested in the materials, forcing them to try to create briefs that will hold his attention.
Patel also ended a long-standing practice of holding secure weekly video conferences with field office leaders across the country, according to NBC. The meetings were considered a crucial way to share information and priorities across the bureau.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kash-patel-is-seriously-infuriating-fbi-officials