A former FBI agent with decades of counterterrorism experience is sounding the alarm about what she sees as a catastrophic loss of focus at the bureau’s top.
Jacqueline Maguire, a special agent for the FBI from 2000 to 2025, published an op-ed Monday in The New York Times, writing she was “pushed out” along with other top executives, illustrating a precarious exodus.
“The bureau remains strong, thanks to the talented and dedicated men and women serving in it, but the ousters of dozens of experienced people since President Trump took office — some of whom handled threats from Iran — demonstrate a dangerous fact about the current leadership,” she wrote.
Maguire warned that Kash Patel’s tenure as FBI director is distracted from protecting Americans from real threats, particularly Iran’s escalating attacks on U.S. soil.
“Kash Patel is consumed by politically motivated revenge and conspiracy theories, distracting the F.B.I., once again, from the danger of terrorism. The spreading war with Iran significantly elevates the regime’s threat to Americans at home and abroad, meaning that the F.B.I. must return its focus to its core work: protecting Americans from terrorists and cyberattacks and halting foreign intelligence operations and espionage,” she wrote.
Iran posed a major threat even before the U.S. killed its top leaders with a devastating bombing campaign. Indeed, Iran has been a “prolific state sponsor of terrorism,” she added.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t take another Sept. 11 to snap the F.B.I.’s leadership into action,” the former agent wrote, expressing grave concern that the bureau is repeating pre-9/11 mistakes by losing focus on terrorism.
Maguire blasted Patel’s “sophomoric leadership,” citing his prolific social media posts, misleading tweets about high-profile cases, combative congressional testimony, and questionable decisions like deploying FBI agents to patrol city streets and enforce immigration laws, which they’re not trained for.
Patel has fired dozens of experienced counterintelligence experts, including those who specialized in preventing Iranian threats. The former agent issued a stark message: “Dismissing personnel out of spite, for no valid reason, makes the United States less safe, especially when some of those fired employees were steeped in the sort of counterintelligence work that prevents Iranian attacks.”
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