FBI’s Kash Patel Era: Officials Witness Polygraph Crackdowns and Loyalty Tests Spark Controversy

FBI’s Kash Patel Era: Under Kash Patel, since becoming director of the FBI, the number of polygraph tests within the bureau has increased phenomenally, not merely to screen security threats but to ferret out disaffection within the agency. During his administration, the lie detector has been an equally heinous invention that has been used not only to maintain a culture of secrecy, but also to determine the level of loyalty by the employees, reported NYT; workers are allegedly interrogated about whether they have disparaged Patel himself.

The officials of the former FBI say the practice indicates a disturbing change: the security of the country is no longer the issue; the loyalty to the person is the matter of police surveillance.

"An FBI employee's loyalty is to the Constitution, not to the director or deputy director. It says everything about Patel's weak constitution that this is even on his radar," NYT quoted saying James Davidson, a former FBI agent.

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The reason why polygraphs are popping off at FBI?

Patel has, since becoming FBI director, vastly expanded the use of polygraph tests by the agency, which were only previously used in the investigation of national security or during severe internal-related probes. However, lie detectors has been used under Patel with a supposed increase in its aggression, and attempts have been made through the use of the detector to have such questions as far-reaching as to whether an employee in fact made any negative comments about Patel himself.

The bureau has also planned to question dozens of employees under polygraphs as a part of an internal leak hunt into the media and employee displeasure, the officials said. There was one such instance when a leak concerning Patel over his peculiar request of a service weapon was being sought after even as he is not a sworn FBI agent.

According to NYT, the FBI declined to disclose information referring to personnel and internal discussions.

The assault on the polygraph is only one indication of the more comprehensive transformation of FBI under Trump administration second-term appointees. Many officials who had worked on old investigations that have not been welcomed by conservatives have been sidelined, reassigned, or put under administrative leave ever since Patel took office.

According to NYT, nearly 40 percent of the field offices of FBI functioned with a new leadership and the top agents either retired or reassigned or were pushed aside.

According to observers, Patel and his deputy director, Dan Bongino, are engaged in a top-down restructuring that is intended to eliminate perceived ideological enemies and tighten control. On the one hand, when asked by his own self about the so-called dramatic personnel changes and an enterprise-wide reorganisation, Bongino presented it as a reform that is needed.

Among the exodus of top officials is some of the most respected veterans, including Tonya Ugoretz, sacked following her skepticism of the credibility of a politically sensitive intelligence document alleging that the Chinese had interfered with the 2020 election. Others departed in anticipation of being fired as a sop to their earlier investigations like the 2016 one by FBI into Russia and Trump connection.

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In addition to the reassignments and resignations, FBI when Patel was in charge has been faulted with creating a work culture that is characterized by lack of trust. Polygraph interrogations seeking to determine those that are internally critical have made many agents uncomfortable particularly when anything like a friendship with one of the former officials on Patel list of enemies can land one on the polygraph machine.

Former senior multi Bureau of Investigation agent in Norfolk, Virginia, Michael Feinberg claimed he was coerced to pass an operational polygraph test on his friendship of Peter Strzok, a lead figure in the Trump- Russia investigation, and a topic of Patel in her book on "Government Gangsters." Feinberg said the order was issued by the second-in-command at the call of Patel, Bongino, and advised that it was part of a wider shift that promoted loyalty over knowledge in the bureau.

"Under Patel and Bongino, subject matter expertise and operational competence are readily sacrificed for ideological purity and the ceaseless politicization of the workforce," Feinberg wrote, who resigned before taking the polygraph.

He continued by saying that he was supposed to grovel and beg for forgiveness and be loyal as one of the parts of the cultural revolution that Patel and Bongino brought to the FBI as it acquires the top positions in American law enforcement and intelligence.

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