FBI Director Kash Patel has been quietly removed as the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, following reports he had stopped showing up to the role.
He was reportedly removed after he had not been “seen inside an ATF facility for weeks”.
Patel will remain in his role at the FBI but at the ATF has been replaced by the U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, a change confirmed to Reuters by an unnamed Department of Justice source on Wednesday.
Both were new postings for Patel, as he was only sworn in as ATF’s acting director on 24 February, only days after being made FBI director.
Glenn Thrush, a New York Times reporter based in Washington, wrote on social media that the change over was “unusual.”
NBC reported that employees at the ATF were “shocked and confused” by Patel’s removal and that it “had nothing to do with job performance.”
