Kash Patel
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Excerpt:The Federal Bureau of Investigation is seeing a stunning spike in new agent applications under its new director, Kash Patel — signaling that confidence in federal law enforcement may be on the mend.
According to internal data reviewed by Fox News Digital, the FBI received 5,577 new agent applications in March, the first full month with Patel at the helm. That figure nearly doubles the monthly average since 2016 and marks the highest number of submissions in nearly a decade.
The last comparable surge came in April 2016, when the bureau logged 5,283 applications. By contrast, the average in 2023 was 2,797 per month. Even in early 2024, before Patel took office, the average monthly tally sat at just 3,383.
“Director Patel and Deputy Director (Dan) Bongino have put a major emphasis on restoring confidence in federal law enforcement and boosting new agent recruiting,” FBI spokesman Ben Williamson told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “These record early returns certainly suggest the new FBI is heading in the right direction.”
Democrats ask Trump to remove Patel as acting ATF director – The Hill
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Excerpt:
A group of Democrats are calling on President Trump to remove FBI Director Kash Patel as the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Fourteen Democratic members of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, chaired by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), expressed “grave concerns” over Patel’s leadership position at the agency in a letter to Trump dated March 3 and shared on social media by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday.
“As you are aware, ATF is the lead law enforcement agency responsible for addressing the gun violence epidemic in our country. At a time when gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the United States, it is unconscionable that someone without experience fighting crime, responding to mass shootings or confronting domestic terrorism has been named as ATF’s Acting Director,” the Democrats wrote.