Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel has a number of quirks that are slowly getting on his agents' nerves, a new report has found.
One of the most shocking accusations the agents make is that Patel often told them to inform him of high-profile arrests in advance, so that he could arrive on the scene to grab the spotlight.
The report said that Patel's unique demand allegedly impacted a recent FBI operation, in which agents were advised to keep their heads down and not engage with the target, as per a source in the know.
The source added that he ironically did not even arrive at the crime scene either.
These allegations were part of an Axios report examining bizarre quirks of the Donald Trump administration's national security team.
This is not all that the FBI chief—who allegedly has too little prior experience to lead the agency—has been accused of.
Patel's media presence is another issue that seems to have ruffled feathers in the FBI.
In fact, in two of the most high-profile crime cases in the US this year—the Charlie Kirk assassination and the Brown University shooting—Patel had quickly taken to social media to demand arrests and please his following.
However, it was soon revealed that the perpetrators had still been at large at the time he posted on social media, causing backlash—on the outside, and allegedly inside the FBI too.
To add insult to injury, a podcast featuring Patel and his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, was also released barely a week after the Brown University shooting that killed two people. Though it was taped before the horrific incident, it still caused backlash because of the timing and its topic (their relationship).
Even his fashion sense has annoyed agents in the FBI, the report added, citing a recently retired agent who called him out for often wearing FBI windbreakers (light jackets) for the cameras.
"You're the director of the FBI. Wear a f*****g suit," the agent said.
Patel has reportedly insisted on wearing his chosen outfits multiple times, including at one point after the Kirk killing, when he even refused to get out of an FBI jet until agents hunted down a medium-sized raid jacket for him and removed their own SWAT patches to decorate it.
“Patel apparently did not have his own FBI raid jacket with him and refused to step from the plane without wearing one,” another FBI dossier said earlier this month.
The dossier, compiled by both active-duty and retired FBI agents, had already critiqued a number of flaws in Patel's reign as FBI chief, including his inexperience, insecurities, and more.