Rachel Poser

So Kash Patel was a highly unusual pick for this role.

He had never worked for the FBI and did not have much experience in federal law enforcement at all.

He'd been a public defender and he worked as an intelligence official in the first Trump term.

He's described by people who know him at the time as not particularly hardworking, but very cocky, ambitious, full of bluster.

Most importantly, he's somebody who has spun conspiracy theories about the bureau in the past.

He says that Joe Biden rigged the 2020 election.

He thinks that there were FBI agents involved in planning the January 6th attack on the Capitol, which is part of why Trump picks him.

One of the first things I did was go on Amazon and buy his book.

I listened to some podcasts and I tried to understand his background, how he approached things.

Because part of my job as the head of intelligence was going to be, I was in charge of the team that would deliver his morning intelligence briefing.

It was enlightening.

I certainly was concerned at some of the disparaging remarks that were directed towards FBI and DOJ.

But I'll admit I was mainly reading for any insights on his views on intelligence, since that was kind of my responsibility at the time.

You know, classic intel analyst, I'm just trying to gather as much info as I can.

I was part of the morning meetings that we would have in which all of the headquarters leaders would assemble in a very large conference room, and we would brief each

the director and typically the deputy director.

And I think everyone was very anxious to meet the new director and to see what he would have to tell us.

And on that very first day, he made an announcement about changes in staffing to the Bureau.

It showed a lack of understanding of what the Bureau at the headquarters level does.

And so this was the first instance, I would say, of a pattern that we would see after that of decisions first and then everybody scramble and figure out how to make it happen later.