The FBI has been "hemorrhaging" some of its most experienced and valuable agents amid President Donald Trump's chaotic and messy return to the White House, with an MS NOW report revealing the development as the bureau's director has been caught inflating arrest numbers.
On Thursday, MS NOW's Ana Cabrera hosted a segment delving into the outlet's recent revelations about FBI Director Kash Patel using sneaky methods to inflate the data pertaining to the bureau's success. Ken Dilanian, the reporter who broke the story, explained that Patel's recent boast about the FBI arresting twice as many violent felons in 2025 compared to when Joe Biden was president in 2024 was the result of a change in policy about what sorts of arrests are included in the statistics.
"What that doesn't explain is that Kash Patel changed the policy so that the FBI began, in 2025, counting arrests where FBI agents were present," Dilanian explained. "But other agencies made the arrests and led the investigation, whether other federal agencies or state and local agencies, including the immigration raids that Patel has been requiring FBI agents to go on. So these stats do not reflect additional suspects being taken off the streets, is what our sources are telling us."
Dilanian also deflated Patel's claims about the FBI getting better at arresting targets on its most wanted list, explaining that he has essentially been "gaming the system" by having fugitives added to the list when it is understood that they are soon to be captured anyway.
Amid this leadership mess, Dilanian revealed that the bureau saw its attrition rate skyrocket in 2025, losing some of its most valuable agents to the private sector. He also noted that this is an issue that cannot be resolved quickly, leaving the FBI in an prolonged quagmire of its own making.
"There's been a hemorrhaging of experienced agents," Dilanian said. "So there are around 13,000 special agents out of the FBI workforce of around 38,000. And generally, there's been around a 5 percent attrition rate, so around 700 agents a year. But in 2025, the bureau lost 2800 agents, according to internal FBI statistics. "
He added later: "And that may actually understate the extent of the damage here, because they are some of the most experienced agents and some of the most senior agents who have left. And it's continuing to happen. And it's a huge problem that is not fixable in a few years or with the next presidency, because those people are gone. They're in the private sector, and it takes many, many years to train people as good as... [these] special agents who have left the FBI."
