A former FBI official sent a warning Monday on MSNBC to President Donald Trump's nominee to head the FBI, saying he's about to walk into an agency that "won't work for him."
Last week, the new Trump government began purging the FBI and teased more cuts are on the way. Among those who could be fired are FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases, which means roughly three-fourths of the FBI could be fired.
Speaking to MSNBC on Monday morning, former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi said Kash Patel is set for a showdown against his own people.
Such actions endanger American national security, he said, and make the U.S. "less safe" as the FBI is currently "tracking multiple terror plots in the United States."
ALSO READ: 'They're both dangerous': Senators worried Patel and Gabbard refused constitutional pledge
Firing the directors of the Washington, D.C., and Miami field offices and identifying 5,000-6,000 agents is "simply politicizing a revenge action against those agents here."
It's not only dangerous but "demoralizing," he said.
"There is absolute dismay over this. Some of these leaders who are going out the door were highly respected veterans. Some, by the way, are not eligible for retirement, meaning they will not be able to put food on their table until this is somehow resolved. We all know this is an illegal action."
He continued that the problem is that it may take a year or two for the issue to be resolved in court.
"The other thing I see happening, which is interesting, is there's traditionally been some tension between field offices and headquarters," he said. "So when the field first heard, hey, a bunch of suits were walked out of headquarters, they kind of shrugged."
"But now that they're the thousands of agents are in peril, that their jobs are in peril in the field, that's got their attention. And Kash Patel, if he gets confirmed, is going to walk into an agency that literally will not want to work for him," Figliuzzi closed.
See his full comments below or at the link here.