Kash Patel was wearing two hats. One was as FBI director, a role he was confirmed for by the Senate. The other was as acting ATF director. A lot of people saw this as a promising development.
While progress hadn't been what I might have liked to see out of the ATF, things were moving in the right direction... until Wednesday, when it was announced Patel was out.
FBI Director Kash Patel has been removed from his role as acting director of the ATF, and the job has been given to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, two Justice Department officials and another source familiar with the matter tell NBC News.
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) April 9, 2025
ATF officials who learned the news today…
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...were shocked and confused, the two DoJ officials said, and no explanation for the change was given.
The Justice Department did not respond to our request for comment. Nor did a spokeswoman for Patel.
Driscoll, who is 38 pr 39, is expected to continue in his job as Army Secretary. Both roles are normally considered full time jobs.
Sources say Patel had not been seen inside an ATF facility for weeks.
This raises some pretty serious questions.
One might be a question of if enough was happening at ATF to satisfy the Trump administration. If not, that might be grounds to remove Patel from his role, especially if his dual role was interfering with it.
Yet that doesn't make a lot of sense, considering Driscoll has a full-time job, too. What's more, instead of another job running another DOJ law enforcement agency, it's a role in a completely different part of the executive branch.
Some have speculated that the issue is really Patel's duties at the FBI turning out to be far more involved than originally suspected. Sure, the Trump administration had some familiarity with what happens at the FBI, but we've seen a massive influx of domestic violence since the president took office. It's possible that the move was simply to allow Patel to focus his attentions on ending that threat first and foremost, and Driscoll just happens to be the guy who has the time for whatever reason.
Honestly, the move is kind of baffling.
Patel stepping out isn't overly shocking. Sure, I had hopes that his running the ATF meant that they were ready to merge it with the FBI and end all the stupidity there, but there was always a chance that he really was just acting in that role for however long it was needed.
Yet I'd figured that if Patel was replaced, it would be with someone who would do the role full-time. I figured we'd get a nomination, a confirmation, and then a full-time head until/unless Congress decided to abolish the ATF entirely.
Replacing Patel with the Secretary of the Army is...odd.
Especially since his confirmation had little or no discussion of Second Amendment rights. Where does he stand on Trump's stated goal of restoring the gun rights of the American people?
He's not going to be as bad as former director Steve Dettelbach no matter what, I'm sure, but there are still big voids on what most of us know about his Second Amendment bonafides.
But those are questions for an entirely different story.
