'Disgusted' ex-FBI acting director says he was asked by chief if he voted for Trump

Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll oversaw the Bureau before Kash Patel and Dan Bongino took over, and, in a new tell-all interview, he revealed a clash with President Donald Trump's administration that sought to fire anyone who didn't vote for the president.

In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Driscoll exposed the loyalty test in which he was probed over his "politics, who he voted for, when he started supporting Trump and whether he’d voted for a Democrat in recent elections."

Patel told Driscoll upon taking over the FBI that he didn't have anything to worry about "so long as he wasn’t active on social media, didn’t donate to the Democratic Party and didn’t vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election."

Driscoll confessed it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He's prohibited from speaking about politics on the job.

"He asked me, do I agree that the agents who stormed Mar-a-Lago, his words, not mine, should be held accountable? I did answer that one with an absolute no," said Driscoll. "And then I explained to him they were doing their jobs pursuant to a predicated investigation and court order. ... And that we don't choose what cases we work. He was like, 'Okay, just tell me if you voted for a Democrat in the last five elections, this conversation is over,' and he concluded the phone call. I was just disgusted and shocked."

He also revealed that the mass-firing of FBI agents was "a White House-directed purge of the FBI aimed at punishing or removing employees involved in investigations into the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot as well as the probe into Trump’s possession of classified documents after his first term."

Driscoll told Cooper that Patel claimed "the FBI tried to put the president in jail and he hasn’t forgotten it. ... It was the first time he articulated it that bluntly to me."

Before being in a lifetime position approved by the GOP-led Senate, now-Federal Judge Emile Bove was working in the new Trump Justice Department and told Driscoll that Deputy Cheif of Staff Stephen Miller wanted the FBI firings. Bove had a list of eight field leaders and executive assistant directors who had to go as a result of their ties to the Jan. 6 cases.

Bove accused Driscoll of “insubordination” and put in writing to him, “no FBI employee who simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner with respect to January 6 investigations is at risk of termination or other penalties."

“It’s devastating to the workforce, not just for the morale, but also the stability of the organization and the faith in it from the people inside of it and the people outside of it," Driscoll said.