The Trump Administration’s Most Dangerous Man

The Slatest He’s in charge of the agency tasked with keeping you safe. He doesn’t seem to be very good at his job. Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by FBI and Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images. This story is adapted from the Slatest newsletter. You can sign up here to get it in your inbox every day. By reputation, the FBI is the world’s foremost law-enforcement agency. But under the leadership of Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s handpicked director, the bureau has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. In the past two weeks alone, hackers stole FBI data and a top official resigned. Patel may be a thoroughly political creature, but the consequences of his slipshod tenure extend beyond the news cycle. Let’s dive in. This hack sounds serious! Tell me more. Last week, a group called ShinyHunters said it had broken into an online FBI jobs portal and stolen names, addresses, and other sensitive data about thousands of current, former, and aspiring agents. ShinyHunters first demanded that the bureau amend a public service announcement accusing the group of using “harassment strategies” and “pressure tactics” to extort victims. It later called the intrusion a “marketing campaign” and said it wouldn’t publish the stolen data. Yikes. Is the resignation you mentioned connected? It seems to have resulted from a different sort of breach. On Monday, Andrew Bailey announced his departure as the bureau’s No. 2 official following behind-the-scenes tension with Patel. CNN reports that “relations between Patel and Bailey had quickly cooled shortly after his arrival at the agency last year.” CBS News adds that Patel cut his deputy out of meetings “because Bailey was constantly flagging things that were unconstitutional.” Bailey is a Trump ally who was seen internally as a potential Patel successor, so that’s quite a statement. Remind me who Patel is? He’s a Trump loyalist who has embraced the president’s lies about the 2020 election, marketed a cover of the national anthem sung by a choir of Jan. 6 defendants, and once published a children’s book in which a wizard named Kash averts a plot to dethrone “King Donald” orchestrated by “Hillary Queenton” and “Keeper Komey.” Since becoming FBI director last year, Patel has made a series of embarrassing missteps. Shortly after the conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated, Patel tweeted that the shooter was in custody; it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. This year, after video captured Patel chugging beer with the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team, the Atlantic reported that Patel has gifted employees “KA$H”-branded bottles of bourbon and sometimes drinks heavily on the job. (Patel denied that and sued the magazine.) At a Senate hearing this month, Patel bizarrely defended new rules that could let the bureau hire agents who have engaged in bestiality. (He said the change is meant to avoid automatically disqualifying applicants who were “forced into it.”) OK, that’s all pretty weird. But is all this recent turmoil really Patel’s fault? The hack probably isn’t; ShinyHunters claims to have exploited a flaw in software made by Oracle. But bureau employees have faulted Patel for how he’s handled it. Some found out via the news that their personal information might’ve been compromised, NPR reports, and aren’t sure how the bureau will protect them if vengeful criminals get their hands on it. Those fears echo a broader crisis of confidence. After Trump returned, the F.B.I. fired agents who helped investigate him for trying to overturn the 2020 election and taking classified documents from the White House. In a report that leaked last year, agents described the bureau under Patel as a “rudderless ship” helmed by an insecure, unprofessional leader who “has neither the breadth of experience nor the bearing an FBI director needs to be successful.” What’s the bigger meaning of all this? The FBI’s current straits can be traced back to one thing: Trump’s hostility. In Trump’s first term, many Republicans—including Patel—embraced conspiracy theories about a “deep state” that sought to foil the president by investigating his ties to Russia. But some congressional Republicans rejected Trump’s attacks on the bureau, and its leadership remained largely apolitical professionals. In his second term, by contrast, fury over Biden-era investigations into Trump’s conduct has broken Republican resistance. Only a GOP Senate that had embraced Trump’s rage would’ve confirmed someone like Patel, and only a president who prizes loyalty above competence would’ve countenanced Patel’s screwups since. For the rest of us, the corrosion of a 37,000-person-strong crimefighting force tasked with investigating everything from terrorism to corruption is arguably a threat to public safety. During this month’s hearing, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker pronounced Patel “an incompetent lackey.” So far, he isn’t beating the allegations. Tolga Akdoğan Assuming you aren’t too busy rereading Patel’s children’s book, my colleagues have some ideas for how to spend the rest of your evening: Reconsider R-Patz: Robert Pattinson was derided for his performance in the Twilight movies, but in recent years, he has drawn comparisons to Brad Pitt. Isaac Butler analyzes Pattinson’s evolution from teen heartthrob to oddball star. Reclaim human intimacy: As A.I. makes inroads into all aspects of society, are chatbots damaging our capacity to maintain relationships with real people? Slate’s Nitish Pahwa talked to psychologist and MIT professor Sherry Turkle about how “modern technology is scrambling our ability to live in the real world”—and what we can do about it. Confront your haters: Speaking of human relationships in the digital age, staff writer Luke Winkie recently went on a deep dive into Slate’s storied comment section. This week, he joined ICYMI to discuss what he learned about this unique online community and how it has managed to endure for decades. Test your trivia knowledge: Calling all history buffs! Prove your skills by playing today’s quiz, with questions about King Henry VIII’s wives, U.S. vice presidents, the French Revolution, and more. I went only three for six on today’s quiz, so I’m off to study up. See you tomorrow!