What, you want me to delete my post when I’ve said something stupid? I don’t think so, buster.
FBI & US Attorney Catch-All
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Bigs23
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Exactly what I expected.
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That was Kristi Noem, our new U.S. secretary of Homeland Security. Boy do I feel safe!
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With Arrival of Bongino, Trump Loyalists Take Command of the F.B.I.
From his wildly popular podcast to the No. 2 post at the F.B.I., Dan Bongino joins Kash Patel, President Trump’s former election surrogate, to lead the agency at a turning point.
With Arrival of Bongino, Trump Loyalists Take Command of the F.B.I.
From his wildly popular podcast to the No. 2 post at the F.B.I., Dan Bongino joins Kash Patel, President Trump’s former election surrogate, to lead the agency at a turning point.
“
In the closing minutes of his podcast, the right-wing provocateur Dan Bongino made a promise. Joining the F.B.I. as its deputy director, he acknowledged, would require a stark change in approach after years of making his name as a pugilistic pundit.
“I have to stay out of the political space because it’s the right thing to do and it’s the rules,” he said during his last episode on Friday. He added, “I’m not going there to be some partisan.”
His arrival on Monday as the F.B.I.’s second in command will test that promise, cementing a major shift at the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, where he will join its director, Kash Patel, in overseeing a bureau of about 38,000 people.
It puts two staunch Trump loyalists in charge of an agency long known for its tradition of independence. Collectively, they have the least leadership experience of any pair overseeing the F.B.I. since its founding more than a century ago. …
… Mr. Bongino will replace Robert C. Kissane, who had more than two decades of experience as an agent and had been serving as acting deputy director. Mr. Kissane is expected to return to New York.
Hours after Mr. Patel was sworn in last month, he signaled his intent to sharply restructure the bureau, ordering the relocation of 1,500 agents and personnel in the Washington region to field offices around the country.
Internal documents show that he told several hundred agents on temporary duty to return to their home offices by the end of June, a potentially significant shift in ascending the ranks of the agency. Those temporary assignments to headquarters are critical to getting promoted, providing agents with deep insights into the bureau’s abilities and reach.
But Mr. Patel will be hard-pressed to attain his larger goal because of steep relocation costs.
Last week, Mr. Patel also altered the hierarchy of the F.B.I., which could, in effect, insulate top agents in the field from Mr. Bongino because they will no longer answer to the deputy director. Some former agents saw that as a positive development. …”
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Meanwhile, Patel seems to be developing a reputation as a joke inside the FBI:
“… Mr. Patel’s unconventional approach has left former agents and analysts to wonder if he is up to the job. In a videoconference with senior agents, he said that he would like the F.B.I. to partner with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the popular mixed martial arts company, and that he was not big on meetings or wearing suits.
He has liberally used social media to promote the F.B.I. in what he has cast as an effort at transparency and highlighted the bureau’s role in immigration arrests. Former and current agents have joked privately that since Mr. Patel took over on Feb. 21., the agency has stopped being corrupt.
… On March 7, Mr. Patel attended the graduation of a new F.B.I. agent class in Quantico, Va., and dressed in camouflage to observe the bureau’s elite tactical team. He then flew to a U.F.C. fight in Las Vegas, where Mr. Patel has said he plans to divide his time. (The plan stands at odds with the administration’s policy of requiring all federal employees to be in the office five days a week.)
In a picture of the Las Vegas fight posted on social media, Mr. Patel is spotted ringside, next to Dana White, the U.F.C. president, and a manager, Ali Abdelaziz. Mr. Abdelaziz, a former informant for the New York Police Department and F.B.I., eventually fell under suspicion for lying. After traveling to Egypt in 2008, he failed a polygraph and the F.B.I. in New York severed its ties with him, according to Police Department documents. Mr. Abdelaziz proudly proclaims his relationship with Mr. Patel on social media, sharing Mr. Patel’s messages and posting a picture of himself at Mr. Patel’s confirmation hearing.
… Mr. Patel has also drawn some praise elsewhere. … In years past, Mr. Patel has repeatedly denounced the F.B.I.’s scrutiny of Mr. Trump.
Yet as director, he set the record straight about one F.B.I. operation that involved the use of a female undercover agent who a whistle-blower said had targeted Mr. Trump. The right-wing news media seized on the detail, casting it as a so-called honey pot operation.
Mr. Patel quickly rebutted the claim on social media: “A female agent was falsely referenced in the media this week as part of an alleged whistleblower disclosure- she was NOT a honeypot.”
One right-wing news outlet called Mr. Patel’s pushback “rare and extraordinary.” …”
“… Mr. Patel’s unconventional approach has left former agents and analysts to wonder if he is up to the job. In a videoconference with senior agents, he said that he would like the F.B.I. to partner with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the popular mixed martial arts company, and that he was not big on meetings or wearing suits.
He has liberally used social media to promote the F.B.I. in what he has cast as an effort at transparency and highlighted the bureau’s role in immigration arrests. Former and current agents have joked privately that since Mr. Patel took over on Feb. 21., the agency has stopped being corrupt.
… On March 7, Mr. Patel attended the graduation of a new F.B.I. agent class in Quantico, Va., and dressed in camouflage to observe the bureau’s elite tactical team. He then flew to a U.F.C. fight in Las Vegas, where Mr. Patel has said he plans to divide his time. (The plan stands at odds with the administration’s policy of requiring all federal employees to be in the office five days a week.)
In a picture of the Las Vegas fight posted on social media, Mr. Patel is spotted ringside, next to Dana White, the U.F.C. president, and a manager, Ali Abdelaziz. Mr. Abdelaziz, a former informant for the New York Police Department and F.B.I., eventually fell under suspicion for lying. After traveling to Egypt in 2008, he failed a polygraph and the F.B.I. in New York severed its ties with him, according to Police Department documents. Mr. Abdelaziz proudly proclaims his relationship with Mr. Patel on social media, sharing Mr. Patel’s messages and posting a picture of himself at Mr. Patel’s confirmation hearing.
… Mr. Patel has also drawn some praise elsewhere. … In years past, Mr. Patel has repeatedly denounced the F.B.I.’s scrutiny of Mr. Trump.
Yet as director, he set the record straight about one F.B.I. operation that involved the use of a female undercover agent who a whistle-blower said had targeted Mr. Trump. The right-wing news media seized on the detail, casting it as a so-called honey pot operation.
Mr. Patel quickly rebutted the claim on social media: “A female agent was falsely referenced in the media this week as part of an alleged whistleblower disclosure- she was NOT a honeypot.”
One right-wing news outlet called Mr. Patel’s pushback “rare and extraordinary.” …”
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Unease at F.B.I. Intensifies as Patel Ousts Top Officials
—> https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/...e_code=1.Lk8.rZxO.YLizUy6rfDwk&smid=url-share“… The actions have obliterated decades of experience in national security and criminal matters at the F.B.I. and raised questions about whether the agents taking over such critical posts have the institutional knowledge to pursue cornerstones of its work.
… “The director and I will have most of our incoming reform teams in place by next week,” Mr. Bongino wrote on social media last week.
“The hiring process can take a little bit of time, but we are approaching that finish line. This will help us both in doubling down on our reform agenda.”
He added that the agency would revisit past investigations, like the 2022 leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion on abortion, cocaine found two years ago at the White House and the pipe bombs found near the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Two of the cases were not the F.B.I.’s to start — the Secret Service investigated the cocaine and the Supreme Court marshal the leak of the draft opinion.)
… “The director and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest,”
Mr. Bongino said, oddly referring to the pipe bombs as a potential act of public corruption rather than domestic terrorism.
In his previous role as a podcast host, he insisted, without offering evidence, that the pipe bombs were “an inside job” and that “the F.B.I. knows who this person is.” …”
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“… In recent weeks, the F.B.I. disbanded the Washington field office’s elite federal public corruption squad, which was best known for investigating Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, among other sensitive inquiries involving prominent government officials.Unease at F.B.I. Intensifies as Patel Ousts Top Officials
“… The actions have obliterated decades of experience in national security and criminal matters at the F.B.I. and raised questions about whether the agents taking over such critical posts have the institutional knowledge to pursue cornerstones of its work.
… “The director and I will have most of our incoming reform teams in place by next week,” Mr. Bongino wrote on social media last week.
“The hiring process can take a little bit of time, but we are approaching that finish line. This will help us both in doubling down on our reform agenda.”
He added that the agency would revisit past investigations, like the 2022 leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion on abortion, cocaine found two years ago at the White House and the pipe bombs found near the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Two of the cases were not the F.B.I.’s to start — the Secret Service investigated the cocaine and the Supreme Court marshal the leak of the draft opinion.)
… “The director and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest,”
Mr. Bongino said, oddly referring to the pipe bombs as a potential act of public corruption rather than domestic terrorism.
In his previous role as a podcast host, he insisted, without offering evidence, that the pipe bombs were “an inside job” and that “the F.B.I. knows who this person is.” …”
…The bureau’s web page detailing the agency’s leadership roles is in disarray, with employees who have left still listed as working there.
… One F.B.I. lawyer was removed from a key job overseeing human resources and notified while on medical leave. Others have been forced out of jobs, typically with no explanation. A succession of top agents, all women, were given an ultimatum: Take a different post or be asked to retire.
… It is not clear how Mr. Patel is reaching these decisions, but former F.B.I. officials say such removals would typically be set off by conduct that warranted being investigated or adjudicated, like a bad inspection or reports of misconduct. Under previous directors, special agents in charge, who typically lead field offices, were rarely removed. By one estimate, more than a half dozen were asked to transfer or face a demotion.
…
The F.B.I.’s increasingly pervasive use of the polygraph, or a lie-detector test, has only intensified a culture of intimidation. Mr. Patel has wielded the polygraph to keep agents or other employees from discussing a number of topics, including his decision-making or internal moves. Former agents say he is doing so in ways not typically seen in the F.B.I. Even though it is not admissible in court, a polygraph can be a powerful tool in supporting a criminal investigation or serious allegations of misconduct.
Jim Stern, who conducted hundreds of polygraphs while an F.B.I. agent, said he used the tool in criminal and counterintelligence investigations and on applicants and security issues. Mr. Stern said that if someone violated policy, the F.B.I. could polygraph them. But if an agent who legitimately talked to the news media in a previous role had to take one, he said, “that’s going to be an issue.”
“I never used them to suss out gossip,” he said.…”