Donald Trump's new FBI director is breaking down the wall that is supposed to exist between his department and the Oval Office with a series of requests that would have been unthinkable during previous administrations.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Kash Patel, a longtime ally of the president who was confirmed by the narrowest of margins in the U.S. Senate, proposed being given direct phone lines to Trump from his office and his home which would allow him to speak with the president without going through the Department of Justice as has been customary.
Patel, whose first move after being confirmed was kicking all the existing executive staffers off the seventh floor where his office is, quickly asked about "an arrangement outside the traditional chain of command in which the FBI director reports to the deputy attorney general, and the president usually talks only to the attorney general," the Journal's C. Ryan Barber, Josh Dawsey and Sadie Gurman reported late Friday.
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The report notes, "It is but one example of how on matters big and small administration officials including Patel and senior officials at the Justice Department have deferred to Trump and his deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller," before adding, "Now, after years of clashing with the Justice Department amid federal investigations into his conduct, Trump has made remaking the institution the centerpiece of his agenda."
According to the Journal, Patel has also checked into hiring his own private security detail despite the FBI already supplying him with agents designated for his protection.
The Journal report states, "Patel asked about having a separate detail, in an apparent suggestion that he didn’t fully trust the FBI agents, according to people familiar with the request."
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