Kash Patel at the FBI, from his nomination to the fights over his tenure

Patel told senior officials he planned to move up to 1,000 employees from Washington to field offices,^[15] briefly served as acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives,^[16][17] and announced that the FBI would leave the J. Edgar Hoover Building,^[3] which it later decided to close permanently.^[4] Three senior officials who were fired said in a lawsuit that he had carried out a "campaign of retribution" under political pressure,^[5] agents photographed kneeling at a 2020 racial justice protest were dismissed,^[18][19] and in October 2026 nine former agents sued, saying they were fired for their work on the Mar-a-Lago investigation.^[6]

His conduct drew scrutiny. On a visit to New Zealand he gave police and spy chiefs inoperable pistols that were illegal under local law,^[20] an Iran-linked hacker group published material from his email account,^[21] and a judge dismissed his defamation suit against Frank Figliuzzi, an MS NOW contributor.^[22] At a May 2026 budget hearing he denied allegations of excessive drinking on the job,^[8] and in September he said he was open to sending federal agents to polling places, alarming Democrats.^[23] In October the FBI denied a report that he had traveled to Russia.^[24] In November, Douglas DePodesta, the former head of the FBI in Chicago, sued the Justice Department, saying he had been made a scapegoat for a failed case against anti-ICE protesters.^[25]