Donald Trump’s handpicked FBI Director launched a profane rant against his own agents as blunders mounted in the Charlie Kirk manhunt, it emerged Friday.
Kash Patel dressed down 200 agents on a virtual call early on Thursday, accusing them of running a “Mickey Mouse operation” and including a swear word in every sentence, The New York Times reported.
Patel, a former podcast host, children’s book author, and cigar entrepreneur who was briefly a junior federal prosecutor, has come under severe pressure from MAGA itself over his handling of the hunt for Kirk’s murderer.
Three sources who spoke to the Times said that Patel vented at agents for waiting nearly 12 hours to show him a photo of the suspect during his profane rant.
The 33-hour manhunt concluded late Thursday with the arrest of suspect Tyler Robinson, 22, after a family friend tipped off the Washington County Sheriff’s office.
Patel himself has already come under public scrutiny for his handling of the manhunt, particularly after he prematurely celebrated the capture of a suspect who was swiftly cleared.
The FBI director, 45, tweeted his congratulations to investigators for capturing “the subject of the horrific shooting” on Wednesday, just minutes before Utah Governor Spencer Cox held his first press briefing with FBI agents and local law enforcement.
The tweet seemed to contradict Cox’s press briefing, where law enforcement officials described the suspect as a “person of interest” but insisted the investigation was ongoing.
Patel was forced to walk back his celebratory tweet after just two hours, when he announced the individual had been released from questioning.
At a Thursday press conference that Patel attended in person, Utah Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety Beau Mason admitted that investigators had “no idea” where the suspect was.
Patel said in a Friday press conference that Robinson was arrested at 10 p.m. the previous night. However, the announcement of Robinson’s arrest was delayed until President Donald Trump could appear on Fox & Friends Friday morning to share the news.
Current and former White House and law enforcement officials were quick to criticize Patel for his handling of the investigation. A White House source called the move “unprofessional” and “not acceptable” in an interview with Reuters.
Retired FBI agent Dan Brunner said FBI directors traditionally refrain from announcing investigation details so early because “initial intelligence is typically wrong or slightly off,” warning, “The FBI does not run investigations on social media.”
Key MAGA voices also decried Patel’s leadership, with Fox News pundit Laura Ingraham tweeting on Thursday, “Suspect is still on the loose. Unreal. Get him.”
Former Trump ally Steve Bannon also blasted Patel’s leadership. “I’m not seeing great law enforcement work,” said Bannon during a Friday episode of his podcast Bannon’s War Room. “They all came together, I got that, but [Robinson’s arrest] was not through law enforcement work.”
However, Patel’s tensions with FBI agents have been brewing since long before the investigation. In May, senior officials told NBC that Patel’s frequent traveling and general appearance of disinterest during meetings had made them concerned he wasn’t taking the director role seriously.
Patel gained even more ire from agents thanks to a summer firing spree, exacerbated when he announced he would lower the standards for hiring new agents.
Senior officials told The New York Times in July that Patel was subjecting agents to polygraph tests to determine whether they’d said anything negative about him.
The day of Kirk’s shooting, three fired FBI officials filed suit against Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, alleging the White House exerted outsized influence over the agency’s operations. The suit accuses Patel of deliberately firing or pushing out agents who he deemed were not loyal to President Trump.
