FBI Director Kash Patel followed up a fiery introductory speech on Friday (Kash Patel Brings the Fire As He’s Sworn in As FBI Director— ‘There WILL Be Accountability’ – RedState) with equally fiery action. He ordered 1,500 staff and agents to be transferred from its Washington, DC, headquarters to various locations across the nation. Some 1,000 agents and staff will be reassigned to cities the Trump administration has designated higher crime locations where they can fight crime rather than engage in political shenanigans. Another 500 staff will be reassigned to Huntsville, Alabama, which is the DC equivalent of exile to Siberia.
This is Director Patel’s first step, and it shouldn’t come as a shock. He told us it was going to happen.
Kash Patel’s Day One plans for the FBI:
“I’d shut down the FBI Hoover Building on Day One and reopen it the next day as a Museum of the Deep State.”
This is why Democrats are fighting so hard to delay Patel’s inevitable confirmation. pic.twitter.com/LG0NdBWzpx
— Christian Collins (@CollinsforTX) February 6, 2025
During his confirmation hearing, he reiterated his goal of getting agents and analysts out of DC and into field offices.
During his confirmation hearing last month, Patel was asked about his previous comments suggesting he wanted the FBI’s headquarters emptied out and shuttered. His responses did not directly address whether he would actually shut the building down or seek to transform it into a museum, but suggested that he believes the FBI’s workforce in Washington should go out into the country.
“A third of the workforce for the FBI works in Washington, D.C.,” Patel said. “I am fully committed to having that workforce go out into the interior of the country, where I live west of the Mississippi, and work with sheriff’s departments and local officers.”
Some of those agents are on temporary duty to DC and will return to their home offices. You can also bet that a non-trivial number of those ordered out of the building will retire rather than move. That would be sad, and we’d be filled with regret over the loss of their talent, but we shall have to somehow soldier on.
