This is FRESH AIR. Host Terry Gross interviews Marc Fisher, who profiles FBI Director Kash Patel in The New Yorker piece titled “Kash Patel’s Acts Of Service.” Fisher outlines Patel’s background, behavior, priorities, and controversies — including whether he is qualified for the job, conflicts of interest, and how he’s reshaping the FBI toward the priorities of President Trump.
A notable moment Fisher discusses is Patel’s combative, evasive exchange with Rep. Eric Swalwell about whether Donald Trump’s name appears in the Jeffrey Epstein files. Swalwell pressed for a simple yes-or-no answer; Patel repeatedly deflected, saying he had released all legally permissible, credible material and insisting his job is public safety, not political innuendo. Patel denied telling Trump he was in the files and denied having told the attorney general that Trump’s name was in them, while asserting he had discussed the files with the attorney general. The hearing illustrated Patel’s showmanship and willingness to commandeer the moment — traits that helped make him a favorite of Trump.
Fisher says no previous FBI director has conducted themselves like Patel. Previous directors were typically career prosecutors or law-enforcement figures who projected a conventional, institutional demeanor. Patel is different in style, temperament, and background. He lacks the long FBI or federal-prosecutorial career that characterized predecessors. Though he served in national-security roles in the first Trump administration, he did not have the law-enforcement résumé or institutional experience many in the Bureau expect of a director. That lack of background, combined with his showmanship and partisan loyalty, has alarmed many current and former agents.
Epstein files and reversal: When Patel campaigned publicly before joining the FBI, he pushed for release of purported Epstein client lists. After becoming director and reviewing the files, Patel reversed course: asserting there was no client list, calling Epstein’s death suicide, and minimizing Trump’s presence in the files. Fisher finds the reversal odd and notes Patel acts indignant when questioned about it, expecting people to accept his account.
Personal perks and costs: Patel has drawn criticism for using Bureau resources for personal travel and security. He arranged executive protection for his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins — a provision unusual for a director’s non-spouse — and used the Bureau’s jet for travel to sporting events and visits, repaying costs later at commercial rates, which agents say undercounts the true taxpayer expense of standing up a government jet. These practices have fueled resentment inside the Bureau.
Staffing, firings, and reassignments: Patel has fired dozens of agents and reassigned many more. He has told agents he is carrying out the White House’s or Justice Department’s wishes in some personnel actions. Reported dismissals include agents for reasons that many see as trivial or vindictive — for example, displaying a pride flag at a desk or refusing to stage a public “perp walk” for a former FBI director targeted by Patel. Many agents have retired early or expressed demoralization.
Patel redirected substantial agent resources toward immigration enforcement and violent-crime missions favored by the administration. Fisher reports roughly a quarter of the FBI’s ~13,000 agents have been reassigned to immigration-related work; hundreds more have been sent on patrols with the National Guard in major cities. Units have been disbanded or weakened, including the public-corruption unit in the Washington Field Office, which had investigated election subversion and related matters. Counterintelligence and international work have seen personnel pulled off important cases, Fisher says, with examples of agents working on Chinese counterespionage reassigned to basic patrol duties.
Standards and training: Patel has shortened the FBI academy and relaxed hiring requirements. The academy was cut from 18 weeks to eight weeks, and a college degree is no longer required for new agents. Fisher and multiple agents relayed concerns that standards have been watered down. Agents also report polygraph questions now probe loyalty to the director and his agenda — a claim Patel denies but which has contributed to morale issues.
Polygraph exemptions and senior hires: Patel exempted his deputy director, Dan Bongino — a Fox commentator and ex-Secret Service agent with no FBI experience — and two other senior hires from taking polygraphs. The FBI has long used polygraphs as a routine security check for those with access to classified information, so the exemptions raised suspicions that Bongino had either failed or had issues that would have shown up on a polygraph. Bongino’s appointment contradicted Patel’s prior promise to hire a deputy with FBI experience.
Retribution and investigations: Fisher details Patel’s stated intent to target people involved in investigations of Trump and his allies. Patel authored a book listing “government gangsters” — a list of roughly 60 people he views as enemies. Under his leadership, the Bureau has opened or pursued investigations of former officials who investigated or prosecuted Trump, including moves against ex-director James Comey. Patel frames much of this work as correcting prior “weaponization” of the FBI, but critics see it as political retribution.
Conspiracy theories and public statements: Patel has promoted multiple conspiracy-minded narratives. On Joe Rogan’s podcast he speculated the Chinese Communist Party intentionally weaponized fentanyl to “kneecap” the U.S. by wiping out future generations — a claim Fisher says mixes a factual problem (fentanyl’s origins and harms) with speculative, dramatic motives. Patel has pushed unsubstantiated theories about Jan. 6, suggesting the FBI planted or used informants to egg on the crowd; he has said he would reveal such evidence once inside the Bureau, but has produced none. Fisher notes Patel has a pattern of entertaining and publicizing conspiratorial accounts.
Declassification and grand-jury testimony: Patel has publicly suggested he saw Trump declassify documents for removal to Mar-a-Lago. He testified before a grand jury after initially asserting the Fifth Amendment, then answered questions after receiving immunity. During his confirmation process he declined to disclose that testimony, despite it being permitted, which some senators found evasive.
Financial ties and ethics concerns: Between administrations, Patel engaged in business activities that made him money and raised ethical questions. He sold branded merchandise, wrote children’s books with MAGA themes, promoted supplements, raised funds for January 6 defendants, and ran a consulting firm whose clients included the government of Qatar and a Chinese company linked to SHEIN. Patel’s Kash Foundation raised $1.3 million in one year but distributed only about $200,000 in grants; much went to operating expenses and to a friend’s advertising firm. Advocacy groups say Patel may have violated rules by not registering as a foreign agent for certain foreign consulting work. After becoming director, Patel received a waiver allowing him to continue handling matters related to Qatar, a country that had paid him previously.
Public relations and image: Patel courts the showy elements of politics and media. He has proposed bringing MMA fighters to train agents and has a visible taste for public spectacle that dovetails with Trump’s own interest in high-profile, hyper-masculine events. Agents view such gestures as belittling to the Bureau’s professional work.
Relationship with Trump: Fisher reports that Trump values Patel’s loyalty and zeal in pursuing the president’s priorities, even as White House officials have been frustrated by missteps — for example, Patel’s premature announcement about capturing an alleged assassin that he later had to retract. Overall, Trump appears to appreciate Patel as a loyalist who reshapes the Bureau in service of the president and his allies.
Fisher’s profile portrays Patel as a director who prioritizes loyalty, showmanship, and political aims over the Bureau’s traditional norms, professional standards, and longstanding missions. The result, agents and observers say, is a reorganized FBI with lowered hiring standards, reassigned priorities, internal demoralization, ethical questions about the director’s outside ties, and a renewed focus on going after figures tied to investigations of Donald Trump.
Marc Fisher is a former Washington Post writer and editor and author of Trump-related books. The profile “Kash Patel’s Acts Of Service” appears in The New Yorker.
