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FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino pushed back against a blistering report from an alliance of active-duty and retired FBI personnel that portrayed the bureau as directionless under its new leadership, defending sweeping reforms they say have delivered major gains in accountability and public safety.
“When the director and I moved forward with these reforms, we expected some noise from the small circle of disgruntled former agents still loyal to the old Comey–Wray model,” Bongino told Fox News Digital Wednesday.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino face criticism from agency personnel for the direction of the bureau under their leadership. (Chris Samuels/The Salt Lake Tribune via Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“That was never our audience. Our responsibility is to the American people. And under the new leadership team, the bureau is delivering results this country hasn’t seen in decades — tighter accountability, tougher performance standards, billions saved and a mission-first culture. That’s how you restore trust.”
New York Post columnist and Fox News contributor Miranda Devine said last week that an internal 115-page report from FBI active-duty and retired agents and analysts heavily criticized Patel and Bongino since they took on their respective jobs earlier this year.
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Dan Bongino speaks with FBI Director Kash Patel as they attend the annual 9/11 commemoration ceremony at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City Sept. 11, 2025. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
The alliance criticized Patel as “in over his head” and Bongino as “something of a clown,” according to The New York Post.
The outlet said the 115-page assessment was written in the style of an FBI intelligence product and analyzed reports from 24 FBI sources and sub-sources who described their experiences inside the bureau.
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Devine said Patel was described by multiple internal sources as inexperienced, with one source saying he “has neither the breadth of experience nor the bearing an FBI director needs to be successful.”
Patel told Fox News Digital the FBI is “operating exactly as the country expects.”
FBI Director Kash Patel during a news conference after the shooting of West Virginia National guardsmen in Washington. (Andrew Leyden/Getty Images)
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“Every reform we carried out this year had a single goal — build an FBI that is faster, stronger, more accountable and fully aligned with protecting the American people. We streamlined the structure, pushed talent from Washington back into the field, expanded our national security capabilities with new tools like the counter-drone school, overhauled FOIA responsiveness and eliminated billions in waste,” he said.
“The impact is undeniable — historic drops in crime, major takedowns of criminal and extremist networks and record-setting arrests across violent crime, espionage, terrorism and child exploitation.”
