FBI Director Claims ‘Supremely Qualified’ Unnamed Leaders Replaced Cyber Officials
Staff departures haven’t affected the FBI’s ability to investigate cybercrime, asserted bureau Director Kash Patel during a combative Tuesday hearing with U.S. senators. Worries about the departures of seasoned FBI agents come amid record-breaking cybercrime levels and a warning that hackers are impersonating the bureau itself by setting up fake crime reporting portals.
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Patel told the Senate Judiciary Committee the FBI has boosted cyber threat case arrests by “40, 50, 60%” – even as many of its top cyber leaders and senior officials have left, retired or were reportedly fired. The FBI is the lead federal agency for investigating cyber crimes (see: Trump Targets FBI, CISA Cyber Officials in Workforce Purge).
Pressed by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, on whether key posts like the director of cyber operations and the executive assistant director of the criminal and cyber branch had been backfilled, Patel said they were replaced by “supremely qualified individuals.” He refused to name them, asserting the senator only wanted their identities “so you can attack them.”
Information Security Media Group could not independently verify Patel’s claims that all top cyber posts have been backfilled or that cybercrime arrests have risen by 40% to 60%. The bureau declined to answer questions about current vacancies or whether it anticipates further cyber-related cuts tied to a proposed $500 million budget reduction. Multiple former FBI officials and security analysts warn morale is low amid agent concerns about job stability exacerbated by firings of agents who worked on Trump-focused investigations.
The exchange with Hirono was one of many fraught moments in a hearing that showcased a combative Patel and his willingness to argue with Democratic senators. “In the short time that you’ve been FBI director, you’ve presided over a rash of retaliatory firings,” charged Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Three former FBI officials have sued Patel and Attorney General Pam Biondi, alleging their firings were ordered by the White as retaliation for their work investigating President Donald Trump. “They’ll have their day in court, so will we,” Patel said of the dismissed agents.
A former FBI official who worked on cyber-related investigations said “there’s a lot of fear going around” inside the bureau. “When agents see their respected colleagues forced out, they start looking for the exit,” said the former agent, granted anonymity to discuss the staffing cuts. “At the top, there’s been a real loss of institutional knowledge.”
Cybercrime has surged in recent years, according to the FBI’s 2024 Internet Crime Report, which logged a $16.6 billion in reported losses – a 33% jump from the year prior – alongside 859,532 complaints. On Friday, the FBI warned that threat actors are now spoofing the bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center website to steal personal information and facilitate scams.
Another former FBI agent, granted anonymity to discuss the loss of cyber leadership, said the cyber division has felt the shock of the political transition and shifting mission priorities – a disruption investigatory teams are usually “shielded” from. When Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif, pressed Patel on reports the FBI was limiting its election interference investigations, the director insisted the bureau did not “in any way divert or reallocate resources” from those operations.
Patel has replaced the FBI’s former assistant director for cyber operations, Brian Vorndran, who left the public sector and joined Microsoft as the firm’s deputy CISO in May. Veteran FBI official Brett Leatherman announced in a LinkedIn post that he was selected to take over the role in June, writing that “FBI Cyber sits at the intersection of law enforcement, intelligence and national defense” and is “uniquely positioned to impose cost on our cyber adversaries while supporting victims of cybercrime.”