Damning report labels FBI ‘rudderless ship’ under Kash Patel — with he and Dan Bongino more concerned with building ‘personal résumés’

FBI Director Kash Patel is facing withering criticism from an alliance of active-duty and retired agents and analysts, days after the White House denied media reports that the president is about to fire him.

A troubling new report card on the first six months of Patel’s leadership concludes he is “in over his head” and his deputy, Dan Bongino, is “something of a clown,” according to the alliance, which in two previous reports warned about crippling DEI and politicization of the FBI during the Biden administration.

The Patel-led FBI is described in the 115-page report as a “rudderless ship” and “all f–ked up.”

Patel is 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.”

Another source, a self-professed Trump supporter, said Patel is “not very good,” “may be insecure,” and “lacks the requisite experience” or the “measured self-confidence” to be FBI director.

However, an additional source described him as “very personable and likable” while noting he “created a culture of mistrust and uncertainty among the ranks.”

Some of the heavy criticism stems from Patel’s behavior in Salt Lake City after the Charlie Kirk assassination. He is accused of giving “premature public remarks” that potentially jeopardized the investigation, taking credit for the work of other agencies when the suspect was arrested, and for yelling and swearing at the agent in charge.

Both he and Bongino were criticized for “arrogance” and an “unfortunate obsession with social media.”

One source said they need to “stop talking, stop posing, and just be professional.” Another said they are “spending too much time on social media and public relations” and “are too often concerned with building their own personal résumés.”

The report was written in the style of an official FBI intelligence assessment, analyzing reports from 24 FBI sources and sub-sources, and using anecdotes to illustrate troubling themes.

The case of the “medium-sized raid jacket” is one example.

On Sept. 11, 2025, the day after Kirk was assassinated, Patel flew into Provo, Utah, on the FBI jet but “would not disembark from the plane without an FBI raid jacket,” according to ALPHA 99, a “highly respected” source who has served in the FBI for multiple decades.

“Patel apparently did not have his own FBI raid jacket with him and refused to step from the plane without wearing one,” according to the report.

Jacket Trouble

FBI special agents at the Salt Lake City field office busy working on the Kirk case “had to stop and ask around to find an FBI raid jacket — a medium-sized one — that would fit.”

When a jacket belonging to a female agent was delivered to Patel on the plane, he complained that “two areas on the upper sleeves did not have Velcro patches attached.”

Patel would not leave the plane “until he had two patches to cover those areas” so “members of an FBI SWAT Team took patches off their uniforms and ran those patches over to” Patel “at the airport. The patches were then attached to the loaner FBI raid jacket” and Patel “disembarked from the plane.”

Patel “did not make a positive impression,” said ALPHA 99.

The director was “not happy” with the way the investigation was going and had earlier “yelled” at Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Bohls, and directed “an expletive-laden tirade” over “perceived blunders” in the case.

Bongino later called Bohls and apologized for Patel’s tirade, “saying that never should have happened,” according to the source.

ALPHA 99 also said Patel “did a disservice to the FBI by breaking with Bureau tradition and norms by taking credit for the good work by other agencies” in the Kirk case and seemed to imply the results achieved in the investigation would not have been possible without” Patel’s “involvement.”

In another situation at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., Patel was said to be upset when he heard about a “discussion that took place . . . among a few dozen FBI personnel” about his request that he be issued an FBI firearm.

When details of the discussion were leaked, Patel ordered everyone to get polygraphs to find out who had criticized him, according to the source, named ALPHA 95, who is described as “a highly respected leader [and] person of integrity.”

ALPHA 95 was dismayed by the order to conduct polygraph examinations, which were needlessly “punitive.”

But, to demonstrate the internal resistance facing Patel, the report says “Trump Derangement Syndrome” remains alive and well under “left-leaning factions embedded within the ranks of the FBI,” and FBI personnel “openly express disdain” for the president.

One source blames past recruitment policies, which prioritized hiring teachers “who were more ‘left’ leaning in their personal views.”

Televisions in FBI field offices are reported to be tuned to leftist channels MSNBC (now MS NOW) and CNN — but not Fox News.

The report, sub-titled “A Pulse Check of the First Six Months” of Patel’s leadership, will be presented to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees this week.

It “was never intended to be a hit piece in any way, shape or form,” say the authors, who requested anonymity to avoid jeopardizing their positions. “But the anecdotal reporting from FBI personnel skewed 80/20 negative.”

There is good news for Patel in the report card. The rollback of DEI policies under Patel is welcomed by multiple sources who say it has reduced the “administrative burden.”

‘Heed the criticism’

One source described immigration raids in which the FBI assists ICE as “overwhelmingly successful.”

“Those individuals being swept up in the raids are criminal and dangerous, not otherwise law-abiding grandmas who have been here for 20 years, as reported by some media outlets,” according to the report.

Another source applauded the fact that “case work and threats are now the priority” and “even most of those assigned to FBI headquarters who are being kicked back out to the field acknowledge the re-prioritization is a positive move.”

While FBI morale elsewhere remained low, one source reported high morale among personnel working in counterterrorism and criminal investigation in an FBI Field Office’s Joint Task Force who, “unlike during the previous Administration in the White House” are “completely supported by the DOJ and the FBI Field Office’s respective US Attorney’s Office.”

Another source reported “operational effectiveness has improved because prosecutors are being more aggressive to stay in the Administration’s favor.”

Patel’s firing of a number of senior executives deemed complicit in past abuses was welcomed by one source, but reforms “have not gone deep enough” and “should be brought to the mid-management level.”

The authors say they “would like nothing more than for the FBI” and Patel “to succeed . . . for the Greater Good and the Nation” but “redemption and resurrection of this proud agency will never be achieved unless there is full transparency . . . to expose critical cultural and operational deficiencies.”

They conclude by advising the notoriously thin-skinned Patel and Bongino to heed the criticism if they want to succeed.