A different kind of FBI chief: Jet-setting Patel loves the limelight

WASHINGTON - Mr Kash Patel flew to Miami on Air Force One last weekend to watch an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event, wearing his signature wraparound sunglasses – at least the second time he has gone to a mixed-martial arts fight as Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director.

Days earlier, he showed up at two NHL games, grinning in photographs with hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. At one, in Washington, Mr Patel, who has played the sport since he was a child, was spotted in the owner’s suite as he watched Capitals player Alex Ovechkin tie Gretzky’s scoring record.

And since taking over the agency, Mr Patel has been a noticeable presence at President Donald Trump’s side, delivering a warm-up speech at the Justice Department before Mr Trump spoke and hovering behind him during the UFC match in Miami.

Mr Patel, 44, seems to relish his new status as director, cutting a highly visible path while running the most important law enforcement agency in the nation. His embrace of the spotlight appears to be a break from the recent past. Previous directors did the job with little fanfare, deflecting any attention that might detract from the work of the bureau.

“As director, I had never sought publicity or the spotlight that sometimes corners public officials,” Mr Louis Freeh, the bureau’s fifth director, wrote in his memoir.

The last three directors have been a mix of personalities, all intent on operating at arm’s length from the president.

Mr Robert Mueller was known as serious and laconic. His successor, Mr James Comey, was considered a powerful orator who did not shrink from making headlines. Mr Christopher Wray, who stepped down before Mr Trump took office rather than get fired, fell somewhere in between Mr Mueller, who did not speak enough, and Mr Comey, who spoke too much, former agents said. They pointed to Mr Comey’s infamous news conference and two letters to Congress during the 2016 campaign that upended the presidential election.

Since being confirmed in February, Mr Patel has wasted little time emblazoning his vision. He has begun to reshape the bureau in short order – in some ways similar to Mr Freeh – like pushing agents into the field. He has also pushed senior executives to step down. Mr J. Edgar Hoover, its founding director, simply fired them. He has rejiggered the agency’s reporting structure, undoing changes that Mr Mueller made, and brought in a deputy who has never been an agent – a first for the agency.

The changes have not resonated with Mr Patel’s fierce following, prompting his deputy Dan Bongino to post on social media: “Because you don’t see things happening in live time, does not mean they aren’t happening. Not even close. You will see results, and not every result will please everyone, but you will absolutely see results.”

Days later, Mr Patel, heeding congressional requests, released some records about the FBI’s investigation into whether any Trump advisers had conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election – an inquiry that Mr Patel denounced.

The conservative news media breathlessly covered the move as online sleuths hunted for new tidbits.

Even as some of Mr Patel’s work has flown under the radar, he has not shied away from praising his own success, posting on social media glowing news coverage of his early moves.

“Kash Patel’s FBI hits the ground running with major early victories,” read a Fox News headline he shared. A smattering of posts highlighted a surge in recruitment applications after he took over in February, although they did not acknowledge that applications had been paused for weeks shortly after Trump’s inauguration.

Asked to comment, an FBI spokesperson said, “The numbers for March were our highest ever, and America is better for it.”

Mr Patel has made clear that this is his show.

In March, the FBI published a recruitment video featuring the bureau’s elite Hostage Rescue Team training in Quantico, Virginia. Punctuated to rock music, Mr Patel, dressed in hunting camouflage, watched as helicopters ferried faceless agents who rappelled onto a building and burst into the unit’s shooting house while tossing flash-bangs.

Mr Hoover, who was relentless about self-promotion, may have welcomed such efforts, but the display rankled some former and current agents as performative. Mr Kyle Seraphin, a former agent who has been deeply critical of the agency and has supported Mr Patel, took to social media to poke fun at the director for “taking selfies with the Hostage Rescue Team”.

Mr Patel and Mr Bongino, once known for their tough talk towards the bureau, have since emerged as some of its most avid supporters, leading Mr Seraphin to suggest that they might have been “captured” by the FBI.

During a recent visit to Quantico, Mr Bongino got a taste of FBI toughness when he hit the mats with an instructor skilled in jujitsu. He did not fare well, several former agents said.

In a post on social media about the incident, Mr Bongino said, “The instructor I was grappling with got the best of me, because he’s incredibly talented.”

Mr Patel’s active presence on social media, including his personal and work profiles, reflect his approach. His accounts on billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X intersperse flattering stories about the FBI under his guidance and photographs of his public appearances with regular updates on priorities such as drug seizures and extraditions of gang leaders. Yet they also serve as a cudgel, upbraiding publications such as The New York Times for reporting on personnel moves at the agency.

Mr Patel, the ninth director of the FBI, is also the youngest since Mr Hoover was appointed in 1924. A bachelor who lives in Las Vegas, Mr Patel belongs to the Poodle Room, a lavish members-only club at the Fontainebleau resort near his home.

Mr Hoover also was fond of clubs catering to a wealthy clientele, such as the Stork Club in New York City, which he occasionally frequented. One picture of Mr Hoover at the club depicts him with Al Jolson, an entertainment star, and Mr Walter Winchell, an influential journalist who helped burnish the director’s reputation. Mr Hoover had his favourite journalists do his bidding.

Mr Hoover never married. Mr Patel is enjoying bachelorhood, dating Ms Alexis Wilkins, 26, a country music singer who lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Despite the challenges of being director, Mr Patel appears to be making time for her.

According to flight-tracking data, one of the bureau’s Gulfstream jets has made three round trips to Nashville. On at least one of those stops, Mr Patel conducted official business, visiting the local field office and meeting Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, along with sheriffs from around the state.

There is little information about the other trips, including who covered the cost, but it is not unusual for the director to take an FBI plane for personal reasons. Directors must fly on government aircraft for their travel because of required access to secure communications equipment.

Directors must reimburse the government for use of the plane at the price of a commercial ticket – much less than it actually costs to operate the expensive jets.

The FBI spokesperson declined to comment, citing security reasons and saying: “All ethical guidelines are rigorously followed.”

Still, Mr Wray’s use of the plane for personal reasons drew swift condemnation from Republicans in Congress. Senator Chuck Grassley has railed against “jet-setting executive travel”, as he called it.

“There’s no reason they can’t take a less expensive mode of transportation, or cut their personal travel,” he said in 2013.

The FBI recently put out a request for information about buying another jet for “required-use executive travel”. It was not clear why the bureau needed another plane. The Justice Department has a small fleet that the director can use to carry out his duties, including two Gulfstreams and two Boeing 757s.

One of those 757s landed at Kennedy International Airport shortly before the NHL game April 6 that Mr Patel attended on Long Island, where he grew up, again seated next to Gretzky in a suite. The plane departed JFK soon after the game ended. NYTIMES