Rachel Poser

I'm both trying to get to the bottom of it in terms of why it's my name associated with this and also thinking, who do I need to talk to about...

He acknowledged that, you know, he had heard about this and he was aware of it.

But he commented that the matter was out of his hands.

And I didn't really understand what that meant because he was the number two official in the FBI.

I'm a pretty stoic person.

I can handle a lot, and it's part of what's made me successful in my job over the past 24 years.

But at that moment, I had tears in my eyes.

So a polygraph's never pleasant.

And so I asked, well, if that's the case, why can't I return to my previous position?

To so casually discard such people as if they were like a used up tissue, you know, with no consideration for what the organization would be losing.

It is careless in a way that is...

not fitting with the level of trust and responsibility of the leadership positions in the FBI.

We heard from a lot of people that there's now a culture of fear in the bureau, of paranoia.

Dozens of people have been fired by Patel since he became director, and the firings continue.

So people are really concerned about taking on assignments that might be viewed as political because you're just not sure whether the next administration who comes into office, if they don't like something that you worked on, whether that's now going to be cause for you to be pushed out.

Everyone we spoke to would acknowledge that the Bureau isn't perfect, and they would say they're open to reforms.

A lot of people felt that it was too top-heavy, too slow.

There was a lot of bureaucracy.

But the way that these changes were being carried out made them concerned about losing the Bureau's fundamental independence and that they were making the country less safe.

It's impossible to know for sure.