Typically, the FBI has turned to polygraph tests to sniff out employees who might have betrayed their country or shown they cannot be trusted with secrets.
Since Kash Patel took office as the director of the FBI, the bureau has significantly stepped up the use of the lie-detector test, at times subjecting personnel to a question as specific as whether they have cast aspersions on Patel himself.
In interviews and polygraph tests, the FBI has asked senior employees whether they have said anything negative about Patel, according to two people with knowledge of the questions and others familiar with similar accounts. In one instance, officials were forced to take a polygraph as the agency sought to determine who disclosed to the news media that Patel had demanded a service weapon, an unusual request given that he is not an agent.
The number of officials asked to take a polygraph is in the dozens, several people familiar with the matter said, though it is unclear how many have specifically been asked about Patel.
The use of the polygraph, and the nature of the questioning, is part of the FBI’s broader crackdown on news leaks, reflecting, to a degree, Patel’s acute awareness of how he is publicly portrayed. The moves, former bureau officials say, are politically charged and highly inappropriate, underscoring what they describe as an alarming quest for fealty at the FBI, where there is little tolerance for dissent. Disparaging Patel or his deputy, Dan Bongino, former officials say, could cost people their job.
“An FBI employee’s loyalty is to the Constitution, not to the director or deputy director,” said James Davidson, a former agent who spent 23 years in the bureau. “It says everything about Patel’s weak constitution that this is even on his radar.”
Already, President Donald Trump’s political appointees have tightened their grip on the FBI, forcing out employees or putting others on administrative leave because of previous investigations that ran afoul of conservatives and a belief that the bureau had been politicised. The list has ballooned to include some of the most respected officials at the highest ranks of the bureau.
Others have left, fearing that Patel or Bongino will retaliate for conducting legitimate investigations that Trump or his supporters disliked. Top agents in about 40 per cent of the field offices have either retired, been ousted or moved into different jobs, according to people familiar with the matter and an estimate by The New York Times, which began tracking the turnover once the new administration arrived.
Tonya Ugoretz, a veteran analyst who ran the directorate of intelligence, was placed on administrative leave about two weeks ago, around the time it was disclosed that she played a role in pulling back a thinly sourced intelligence report from an informant in Albany, New York. The informant, who was new and had indirect access to information passed onto the FBI, claimed that China had tried to influence the outcome of the 2020 election in favour of Joseph R. Biden, according to documents released to Congress.
As a top official in the cyberdivision at the time, Ugoretz recalled the report before the 2020 election because the document had serious shortcomings, according to the emails released to lawmakers. Another colleague who was involved in scrutinising the report retired.
New York Times News Service