Indian-origin FBI Director Kash Patel has been spending more time in nightclubs than fulfilling his official duties, a former high-ranking bureau official has claimed.
“Reportedly, he’s been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building,” former FBI counterintelligence chief Frank Figliuzzi told MSNBC.
Mr Figliuzzi, a 25-year veteran of the FBI, also noted that Mr Patel no longer receives daily briefings. “And there are reports that daily briefings to him have been changed from every day to maybe twice weekly,” he added.
According to multiple reports, Mr Patel has been splitting his time between Washington DC and his residence in Las Vegas.
Mr Figliuzzi called it “both a blessing and a curse.”
“Because if he’s really trying to run things without his experience, without any experience level, things could be bad. If he’s not plugged in, things could be bad. But he’s allowing agents to run things so we don’t know where this is going,” he said.
Mr Figliuzzi described the situation within the FBI as chaotic, quoting internal sources. “But the one word that keeps coming back at me from inside is that the building is chaos. People don’t know what’s happening from day to day,” he told MSNBC.
Last month, Mr Patel was removed as the acting director of the agency responsible for enforcing America’s gun laws.
Concerns around his conduct have also prompted Democratic senators to seek an official investigation into his alleged misuse of FBI resources, particularly his use of government aircraft for personal travel.
According to CBS News, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) is considering launching a review into Mr Patel’s travel expenses to determine whether personal trips were improperly billed to taxpayers.
Kash Patel is also facing criticism over his directive for polygraph tests within the FBI, The Washington Post reported. These tests are allegedly being used to identify agents suspected of leaking sensitive information to the press. “The seriousness of the specific leaks in question precipitated the polygraphs, as they involved potential damage to security protocols at the bureau,” an FBI spokesperson said.
