Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailGet our free Inside Washington emailKash Patel’s future at the FBI is reportedly on thin ice as a new co-deputy director is set to come on board at the agency and concerns about his leadership skills are now coming from inside the administration.Monday marked the swearing-in ceremony of Andrew Bailey, Patel’s new deputy — joining Dan Bongino in that role — at the FBI, which is now under greater scrutiny than ever before. Already in a precarious political position given the innate risk of challenging the FBI’s established status quo, Patel has spent the past several months balancing the weight of carrying out Donald Trump’s political agenda at the Bureau while simultaneously taking heat from the MAGA base over his and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.Now, Fox News is reporting that long-known tensions between Bondi and Patel over the will-they-or-won’t-they back and forth over release of the Epstein files are spilling out into the open, with Bailey’s appointment seen by some as a move to engineer Patel’s ouster.”The White House, Bondi, [deputy Attorney General] Blanche have no confidence in Kash,” one source with knowledge of ongoing personnel discussions told Fox News. “Pam, in particular, cannot stand him. Blanche either.”The report comes on the heels of a separate article published by CNN indicating that the FBI director’s problems just multiplied with the murder of Charlie Kirk in Utah.open image in galleryKash Patel, the FBI director, is reportedly embroiled in personal disputes with top DOJ officials (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)Kirk’s shooting death, which took place on a crowded college campus and involved a suspect later thought to have been captured on multiple security cameras, resulted in a confusing, disjointed manhunt that only ended after a family member of the suspect recognized his image, confronted the suspect, and convinced him to turn himself in to authorities.Patel is now openly being accused by MAGA influencers like Chris Rufo of bungling the investigation after an embarrassing mixup in which the FBI director falsely stated in the hours immediately following the assassination that a suspect had been apprehended by law enforcement.“I’ve been on the phone the last few days with many conservative leaders, all of whom wholeheartedly support the Trump Administration and none of whom are confident that the current structure of the FBI is up to this task,” Rufo posted on X last week.The White House issued one of its typically acidic statements bashing Patel’s critics over the weekend, but given the extent of the tensions merely within the Department of Justice it’s possible that the FBI director’s days are numbered anyway.“[I]t is time for Republicans to assess whether Kash Patel is the right man to run the FBI,” Rufo added in his statement posted to X. “He performed terribly in the last few days.”open image in galleryFormer Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, joined the FBI as its new co-deputy director under Kasah Patel (AFP/Getty)Bondi and Blanche responded to the Fox report in a joint statement: “We work with Director Patel every single day and fully support his leadership at the FBI. The suspect is in handcuffs today because of the outstanding work of Director Patel and our law enforcement partners. Any suggestion to the contrary does not reflect the reality of our strong working relationship and shared commitment to protecting the American people.”Bailey also denied Fox’s reporting that asserted his appointment heralded Patel’s replacement as director of the FBI.”Any suggestion that I was brought in to replace anyone in leadership at the FBI or spin my appointment into a sign of division, is simply false – I am honored to serve the FBI and Department of Justice as we work together to keep our nation safe,” he said.Fox News reported multiple sources with knowledge of the situation as describing an “off-ramp” the White House was preparing for Patel in the event that the DOJ becomes untenable ground for him. The network reported that Patel would be reassigned to another agency in this event, similar to how former national security adviser Mike Waltz was shifted to become his nominee to serve as ambassador to the United Nations after a Laura Loomer-led crusade resulted in his ouster and a loyalty purge of the National Security Council.“He’ll get Billy Long’ed,” one of the network’s sources joked. Long was removed as IRS commissioner earlier this year after controversy, and has since been tapped by Trump for an ambassadorship post in Iceland.Patel went on Fox News early Monday morning to defend his leadership of the FBI amid the criticism, even as several fired agents filed a lawsuit last week accusing him and deputy director Dan Bongino of being obsessed with social media and the agency’s image online at the expense of law enforcement responsibilities.Patel went on Fox & Friends Monday morning to defend his handling of the Kirk case.“The job of the FBI is not just to manhunt the actual suspect who did the killing, or suspects, but it’s also to eliminate targets and eliminate subjects who are not involved in the process, and that’s what we were doing,” Patel told the panel of hosts.“Could I have worded it a little better in the heat of the moment? Sure, but do I regret putting it out? Absolutely not,” Patel said, referring to his tweet prematurely announcing the detention of a suspect. “I was telling the world what the FBI was doing as we were doing and I’m continuing to do that.”
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Kash Patel on thin ice as FBI director after Trump taps new ‘co-deputy’ amid Charlie Kirk case criticism: report
