FBI director Kash Patel has ordered the polygraphing of more than two dozen former and current members of his security detail and other staff and has been described as in panic mode to save his job and find leakers among his team, according to two people briefed on the development.
Patel has walled himself off from some senior bureau leaders this week in the wake of multiple media reports that raised red flags about his leadership, according to three people familiar with his recent actions. Two of the people told MS NOW that the director ordered the polygraphing this week of the former and current security detail members, as well as several information technology staff.
The director also has avoided meeting this week with some key operational leaders of the bureau, the people said, raising concern inside the FBI about Patel’s ability to stay abreast of pressing threats and investigations in order to make the best decisions.
FBI spokesman Ben Williamson declined to comment on whether Patel has ordered polygraphs. He disputed claims that the director was walled off from his senior staff, saying Patel has regularly met with operational leaders including his two deputy directors, assistant directors and an intelligence briefing team.
“I’ve been in the usual operational leader meetings with him every day this week…it’s false,” he said.
The FBI director demanded the polygraph examinations to determine if any members of the team that accompanies him on all his travels or staff who have access to sensitive details about his decisions have communicated with reporters, according to the people, who asked to speak anonymously due to the threat of retribution.
This new detail comes a day after MS NOW revealed Patel ordered a team of FBI agents to open a criminal leak investigation into a story by The Atlantic last month that described him as drinking to excess and being difficult to rouse the following morning.
Sources had told MS NOW that agents were deeply concerned about opening such a probe in which they were expected to examine the contacts of a journalist engaged in newsgathering and, in their view, lacked reasonable justification. Those sources said the agents who were directed feared Patel would fire them if they did not agree.
Historically, the FBI and Justice Department would not open a criminal leak investigation unless they believe classified information has been compromised, and would not seek to examine reporters’ records or contacts unless as a last resort or in extraordinary circumstances, involving a risk to national security.
Together, the broad polygraphing of staff and Patel’s recent retreat from some team members paints a picture of a director increasingly fearful that more bad media reports will lead President Trump to replace him. Trump and senior White House aides have been frustrated by the bad headlines that Patel’s conduct and decisions have generated.
This is not the first time Patel had engaged in broad polygraphing of staff, MS NOW has learned. According to one person familiar with an incident several months ago, dozens of agents were polygraphed after public reporting about Patel making a request to obtain a gun, a request that was routed to Quantico and mentioned by one agent on a call with several others.
In late November 2025, MS NOW was first to report that Trump and White House advisers were privately discussing removing Patel from his job.
Just months into his tenure as director, Patel had come under intense scrutiny for his questionable stewardship of bureau resources, including his girlfriend’s security detail and use of a government jet.
The White House discussions came in the wake of a November MS NOW report that Patel had ordered a team of SWAT agents in Nashville to protect his girlfriend, country music performer Alexis Wilkins, and drive and chaperone her around. Patel’s office said it was appropriate to add a security detail because of threats she was receiving. Girlfriends and wives of FBI directors had never previously received a separate protective detail. Patel was also facing questions about his use of a government jet to fly for a so-called “date night”, after a whistleblower revealed Patel had flown to Pennsylvania to see Wilkins perform the national anthem.
MS NOW reported in February that Patel had decided to fly to Milan, Italy on the government jet to watch the U.S. men’s ice hockey team in the final games of the Olympics. At the time, a spokesperson for Patel said in an on-the-record statement that the Italy travel was a business trip and Patel was attending several security and partner meetings. Videos emerged shortly after Team America won the gold medal, showing Patel in the team’s locker room, joining a victory celebration by chugging beer, spraying alcohol in the air and jumping up and down and cheering.
The images infuriated the president, according to sources who spoke to MS NOW at the time, and he told Patel he didn’t like the optics of a director drinking while claiming to be on a government business trip.
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