FBI Director Kash Patel is making bureau staff take polygraph tests to root out anyone who’s been talking trash about him, according to a report.
Patel has ramped up the FBI’s use of the lie-detector tests—often deemed too unreliable to use as evidence in criminal courts—in order to keep tabs on his own people and stamp out leaks.
But according to The New York Times, senior officials and agents are also being strapped to the machine and grilled on whether they’ve “cast aspersions” or said anything negative about Patel and his leadership.
The aggressive use of polygraphs is fueling an increasingly distrustful atmosphere inside the FBI under Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, which has already been rocked by mass layoffs and the targeting of agents involved in criminal cases linked to President Donald Trump.
Agents have expressed concerns that they are at risk of losing their jobs if found to have said anything even remotely critical about Patel or Bongino.
“An FBI employee’s loyalty is to the Constitution, not to the director or deputy director,” former veteran FBI agent James Davidson told the Times. “It says everything about Patel’s weak constitution that this is even on his radar.”
Dozens of FBI officials have reportedly been subjected to polygraphs under Patel’s leadership, though it’s unclear how many were interrogated specifically about bad-mouthing the boss.
One employee who was put on administrative leave during the Trump-era purge was brought back just to be grilled on the polygraph. Others were forced to take the test as Patel tried to find who leaked a story to the press that he wanted a service weapon, despite not being an agent working in the field, according to the Times.
One top FBI agent, Michael Feinberg, who worked the field office in Norfolk, Virginia, resigned after he was threatened with a polygraph test over his friendship with Peter Strzok, a counterintelligence official who was fired from the Bureau after sending disparaging text messages about Trump.
Strzok, who played a major role in the FBI’s probe into whether Trump’s team conspired with Russia to intervene in the 2016 election, was among Patel’s notorious “deep state” enemies list that appeared in his 2023 book, Government Gangsters.
In a July 3 post on the Lawfare blog, Feinberg said he would have been expected to “grovel, beg forgiveness, and pledge loyalty as part of the FBI’s cultural revolution brought about by Patel and Bongino” during his polygraph test.
While inadmissible in court, federal security agencies often use polygraph tests for internal investigations and during the security clearance process.
The Times, citing unnamed sources, said the rampant increase in polygraph tests is the latest example of the FBI becoming more “vindictive and extreme,” with officials becoming less trusting of each other as certain factions within the Bureau have “embraced snitching.”
The FBI declined to comment to the Times, citing “personnel matters and internal deliberations.” The Bureau did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from the Daily Beast.
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