Hello, it's Miranda with a new mini episode to start off your week.

This new feature is a little more topical and more to do with my day-to-day job as a columnist

for The New York Post when I zoom in on a topic that I think will interest you.

Today's subject is the embattled leadership of FBI

director Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Vonjino. They've copped a lot of criticism, some fair and some

unfair. Today I present an independent report on Kash Patel's first six months, written by FBI insiders who I trust as being

accurate and fair and whose work I have reported on before. We all acknowledge the difficulty

of reforming such a corrupt institution, but nobody would deny that Cash and Dan have got off to a rocky

start.

There are a lot of different columns I could have written, but I thought it best to deliver

these home truths from friends who only have the best intentions for the FBI.

There is only a short window of opportunity during Donald Trump's presidency

to fix the Bureau, and time is wasting. FBI director Cash Patel is facing withering criticism

from an alliance of active duty and retired agents and analysts, days after the White House denied media reports that the

president is about to fire him. A troubling new report card on the first six months of

Patel's leadership concludes he is, quote, in over his head and that his deputy, Dan Bongino

is, quote, something of a clown, according to the Alliance,

which in two previous reports has warned about crippling DEI and politicisation of the FBI

during the Biden administration. The Patel-led FBI is described in the 115-page report

as a, quote, rudderless ship and, quote, all effed up.

Patel is described by multiple internal sources as inexperienced, with one source saying he has,

quote, neither the breadth of experience nor the bearing an FBI director needs to be successful."

...