'Putting the nation in jeopardy': Trump's FBI chief plans mass layoffs — and a lot more
President Donald Trump's FBI Director Kash Patel is planning massive changes to the nation's top law enforcement agency, which experts fear would cripple their ability to keep America safe.
The news was reported by MSNBC's Ken Dilanian on Friday evening.
"FBI Director Kash Patel is imposing changes aimed at transforming the bureau into a national police force focused on violent crime, current and former officials tell MSNBC — at the expense, they say, of the FBI’s longstanding role protecting U.S. national security from terrorists, hackers and spies," wrote Dilanian on X. "On a national call Thursday, top FBI official Jodi Cohen informed the heads of more than 50 FBI field offices that Patel plans to equip FBI agents with tasers; that all agents are expected to spend time investigating violent crime; and that the bureau will begin allowing other federal law enforcement agents to join the FBI after an abbreviated training, whether or not they have a college degree."
FBI agents typically carry firearms, but rarely tasers or other "less-lethal" weapons common among municipal patrol officers.
At the same time, Dilanian reported, Patel plans a dramatic staffing cut at the bureau, with "plans to cut around 15 percent of its workforce — 5,800 people from a total of around 37,000, the FBI field office leaders were told, according to the sources."
The changes, which follow the FBI being ordered to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) more aggressively and agents being made to patrol Washington, D.C., as part of Trump's federal takeover of the city's law enforcement, have left some experts alarmed that the FBI will be incapable of defending America effectively.
Former FBI agent Rob D’Amico warned, “This is putting the nation in jeopardy — they seem to be making national security threats secondary.”
Patel, a former GOP intelligence staffer who has pushed "Deep State" conspiracy theories and was infamous for his political vendettas, has caused controversy ever since assuming control of the FBI. He has made agents submit to polygraphs to prove they aren't badmouthing him, and has faced unconfirmed allegations of being frequently absent from the job.