FBI insiders raise concerns over Kash Patel’s leadership

FBIDirector Kash Patel is facing a scathing review from dozens of current and former officials who think he’s botching the job. Since shortly after President Donald Trump won the election in November 2024, 45 agents, officials and executives have been speaking with the New York Times about Patel and revealing some details that have raised eyebrows across the bureau. Some slammed his decision to reassign agents to immigration enforcement efforts, others criticized his use of a taxpayer funded jet for his and his country singer girlfriend’s personal travel. One source said that there are concerns within the bureau about having a leader more concerned with optics and controlling the public narrative rather than doing the investigatory work needed to solve crimes.

In May, a senior executive who remained anonymous for the story shared an eyebrow-raising story about Patel insisting that top secret international business be conducted at a soccer match in the UK. During a Five Eyes conference in Britain with intelligence agencies from the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Patel reportedly expressed to staff he was unhappy with the decision for meetings to be held in an office setting. ‘What he wants is social events,’ the executive told the Times. ‘He wants Premier soccer games. He wants to go jet skiing. He’d like a helicopter tour. Everyone who heard about this was like: Hold on. Is he really going to ask the MI5 director to go jet skiing instead of meeting?’

‘They can’t just say that he’s not participating and instead he wants to go to a Premier soccer game. This is a job, guys,’ they added. During planning for the conference, staff allegedly said the only things that were important to them were establishing what meals Patel would have, when his workouts would take place and what his entertainment would be on the trip. But ‘the biggest plan,’ the executive claimed, ‘is how he’s going to get his girlfriend in there so she can go to Windsor Castle.’

Patel’s girlfriend, country music artist Alexis Wilkins, has been the center of much controversy at the FBI. Claims span from overspending government money on her security detail and travel, to wild conspiracies she’s an Israeli ‘honeypot’ spy trying to insert her agenda at the bureau through her boyfriend. The couple have denied it all. Wilkins even took the heat for Americans’ ire over the delay and lackluster release of the Jeffrey Epstein files last year. Current and former officials also expressed their assessment that Patel is simply not fit for the role leading the Federal Bureau of Investigations. In September, conservative luminary Charlie Kirk was assassinated during an event on a college campus in Utah. Just hours after the horrific murder, Patel posted to X for his 1.8 million followers that a suspect was detained, but backtracked shortly afterwards before flying to Utah to oversee the investigation.

Former section chief in the FBI intelligence division John Sullivan told the Times that it’s likely Patel was told an individual was detained and then jumped the gun to announce it was a suspect without first confirming – a rookie mistake. Others who remained anonymous said Patel and then-Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino were more worried about their social media strategy than actually finding the assassin. An unnamed senior executive alleged that Patel became obsessed with the X strategy and claimed the director is ‘super emotional.’ During a conference call briefing on the assassination, Patel and Bongino began ‘talking about their Twitter strategy’ in what the senior executive called a ‘surreal’ moment. ‘Kash is like: I’m gonna tweet this. Salt Lake, you tweet that. Dan, you come in with this. Then I’ll come back with this,’ the executive recalled.

‘They’re literally scripting out their social media, not talking about how we’re going to respond or resources or the situation,’ the source added. ‘He’s screaming that he wants to put stuff out, but it’s not even vetted yet. It’s not even accurate.’ Patel was viewed as ‘completely out of control’ by those on the call, and allegedly said on a different call: ‘When a crisis happens, the only thing you need to do is call me. The most important thing in any crisis is controlling the narrative.’ Just months after the Kirk assassination, Bongino departed the FBI to go back to his right-wing podcast. Trump marked the conclusion of his first year back in office on Tuesday, and one FBI insider told the Daily Mail that Patel will likely stick it out through the entire term.

Around November 2025 reports surfaced that Trump was considering replacing Patel, but the president and White House publicly pushed back on those claims as ‘fake news.’ Trump even laughed off the rumor in an Oval Office meeting with Patel last year and stated his FBI director is ‘doing a great job.’ An FBI spokesperson did not respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment on the claims in the NYT article.