'Radical change': Former FBI official says rank-and-file agents see Patel as a 'hatchet man'

On Thursday, the U.S. Senate officially voted to confirm Kash Patel to be the next director of the FBI. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joined the Democratic opposition while all other Republicans voted in favor of confirmation.

During a Thursday segment on CNN, Frank Montoya — who was special agent in charge of the Seattle, Washington field office — said that Patel's confirmation is a "radical change" to the bureau that is likely worrying a lot of career FBI agents. Montoya noted that agents who don't concern themselves with politics are now likely to be on edge as they carry out investigations.

"They're not stupid. They have seen what has happened in the in the last month and how their their friends and their colleagues have been targeted. Some have been fired, some have been demoted and reassigned, some have been forced into retirement," Montoya said. "And I'm hearing the numbers are a lot larger than than what are publicly being reported."

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Montoya said one particular concern of agents is the fact that thousands of them worked on cases pertaining to defendants charged and convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, who were later pardoned after President Donald Trump began his second term. He added that many of the agents at risk of losing their jobs for working on those cases include agents who combed through the wreckage of the American Airlines jet that crashed in the Potomac River last month.

"These guys and gals have been doing their work without any kind of controversy for years and years. They go out every day and they do this kind of stuff without concerning themselves with whose politics are going to drive today's investigation or the course of this investigation," he said. "Everybody is worried because, you know, in addition to what has already happened, now there's this list out there with 5,000 to 6000 names on it ... so, just a lot of concern about that."

Aside from the career rank-and-file agents, Montoya also worried about the firings of probationary-level agents who he said were likely "biting their nails every single day" given that the Trump administration has singled them out for mass firings.

"It really is a great deal of emotional drain right now," Montoya said. "And then there's this new guy coming in that that everybody is looking at as you know, more of the same ... a hatchet man per se, who is coming in to finish the job that that Emil Bove at the DOJ has already started. So yeah, a lot of concern about that."

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Watch Montoya's segment below, or by clicking this link.