'Alarming quest for fealty': FBI agents subjected to lie detector tests over their loyalty
Since Kash Patel and Dan Bongino assumed leadership roles atop the FBI, the bureau has adopted a noticeably more forceful approach with polygraph tests, the New York Times reported Thursday. Agents and senior staff have been asked pointedly in polygraphs and interviews whether they have “cast aspersions on Mr. Patel himself," per the report.
Two insiders and other sources familiar with the inquiries told The Times that senior employees were asked if they had spoken negatively about Patel.
Although polygraph results are typically inadmissible in court, federal national-security agencies routinely deploy them in internal investigations and security-clearance checks for personnel reviews. This heightened polygraph usage is part of a wider FBI effort to clamp down on leaks.
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In one case, dozens of agents were required to take a polygraph to identify who leaked to the media that Patel requested a service weapon — an unusual move for someone without agent status.
The report further noted that former bureau officials characterize the strategy as politically motivated and inappropriate, saying it reflects what they view as Patel’s deep concern over his image. They describe the tests "as an alarming quest for fealty at the F.B.I., where there is little tolerance for dissent."
They warn that criticizing Patel or his deputy, Dan Bongino, “could cost people their job.”
The report indicated that roughly 40% of field office leadership has either retired, been dismissed, or reassigned since the new administration took over.
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According to the report, Michael Feinberg, a senior agent at the FBI’s Norfolk, Va., field office until spring, was threatened with a polygraph over his friendship with Peter Strzok, a former counterintelligence official dismissed after sending texts criticizing Trump.
Feinberg emphasized that Strzok had a key role in the bureau’s investigation into whether Trump campaign aides colluded with Russia in 2016. He also noted that Strzok features on the so-called enemies list published by Patel in Government Gangsters. per the report.
Writing for the national security blog Lawfare, Feinberg recalled that the Special Agent in Charge, Dominique Evans, told him he would be “asked to submit to a polygraph exam probing the nature of my friendship with Pete.”
He further stated this directive came at the behest of Dan Bongino, highlighting what he described as a broader trend prioritizing ideological alignment over professional merit.
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Feinberg went on to write, “Under Patel and Bongino, subject matter expertise and operational competence are readily sacrificed for ideological purity and the ceaseless politicization of the work force.”
He added that he was “expected to grovel, beg forgiveness and pledge loyalty as part of the FBI's cultural revolution brought about by Patel and Bongino’s accession to the highest echelons of American law enforcement and intelligence."
Faced with these demands, Feinberg chose to resign before taking the polygraph. In an essay titled Goodbye to All That, he warned that his case is not isolated: more agents are being pushed out over perceived political unreliability.
