Kash Patel, FBI’s new director, planning to relocate 1,500 agency employees from Washington: Report

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) newly appointed Director Kash Patel is planning to relocate up to 1,000 agency employees from Washington to field offices and move an additional 500 to a large bureau facility in Huntsville in Alabama, reported news agency AP.

The plans have not been made public yet.

“Director Patel has made clear his promise to the American public that FBI agents will be in communities focused on combatting violent crime. He has directed FBI leadership to implement a plan to put this promise into action,” the FBI said in a statement.

The FBI Director emphasised on the bureau’s traditional crime-fighting duties rather than the intelligence-gathering work.

According to the FBI's website, the federal law enforcement agency has had a presence at facilities at the Redstone Arsenal outside Huntsville for more than 50 years and that 1,300-plus personnel are already working there in various roles.

Patel was sworn in on Friday on the White House campus after he was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday by a 51-49 margin. Two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, breaking party ranks and voting against him.

At his swearing-in ceremony, Patel called the opportunity to lead the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency the “greatest honor” of his life.

“I think he’ll go down as the best ever at that position,” President Donald Trump told reporters Friday ahead of the ceremony.

On Friday, Patel said that the FBI's “national security mission” was equally important as its efforts to fight violent crime and drug overdoses.

“Anyone that wishes to do harm to our way of life and our citizens, here and abroad, will face the full wrath of the DOJ and FBI," he said, adding, "If you seek to hide in any corner of this country or planet, we will put on the world’s largest manhunt and we will find you and we will decide your end-state.”