F.B.I. Leaders Push to Restore Trust in the Agency They Once Undermined

[Timber Rattler]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/us/politics/kash-patel-fbi-trust.html

Before they took control of the F.B.I., the bureau’s two top leaders, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, were some of the agency’s most rabid critics, attacking it at every turn for years.

But now that they are running the agency, the two men have pulled a kind of bait-and-switch: In recent emails to thousands of F.B.I. employees, they have sought to use the bureau’s damaged reputation — a reputation that they themselves helped tear down — as a rationale for bringing reforms to the supposedly broken organization.

(snip)

It remains unclear, even 30 days after Mr. Patel arrived at the F.B.I. what sorts of changes he intends to carry out. He has moved senior executives into new jobs and current and former agents applauded some of those choices.

But some of those moves appear at odds with Mr. Patel’s past derision of the F.B.I.’s aggressive approach to Jan. 6. The new assistant director Mr. Patel named to run the Washington field office, Steven J. Jensen, was in charge of the bureau’s domestic terrorism operations section on that day, and he played a key role in responding to the attack on the Capitol.

Mr. Jensen was also responsible for establishing a system to monitor incidents of violence at school board meetings across the country as potential acts of domestic terrorism — one of the most serious complaints that Mr. Patel himself had about the F.B.I. under the Biden administration.

EXCERPT

https://twitter.com/ocraziocornpop/status/1908506311408705648?s=46&t=oXM3QUNDayEotvdo1W-zQA

Also...

Bongino Tells F.B.I. He Is Not Partisan

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/us/politics/dan-bongino-fbi-partisan.html

Dan Bongino, the F.B.I.’s deputy director, who rose to popularity as a conservative podcaster bashing Democrats and praising President Trump, sought to reassure the bureau’s employees that he would not act as a “partisan political figure.”

Addressing the work force on Monday, Mr. Bongino said in an email that he would set “aside any personal politics” and rise above partisanship in stepping into the crucial job of overseeing 38,000 employees.

(snip)

Indeed, Mr. Bongino’s email on Monday represented an about-face since he became deputy director. In tough moments, he told employees, remember that “you work for the F.B.I. Those three letters mean something. It’s an incredible privilege to be here — take it from the new guy.”

EXCERPT

So what about it, Dan...et tu?