FBI Director Kash Patel has reportedly been chosen by President Donald Trump to also serve as the acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Unnamed sources confirmed the pick to both NewsNation and Fox News on Saturday evening.
The news that Patel had been chosen to run the ATF came just one day after he had been sworn in to run the FBI.
Fox News reports, “Former FBI Director Christopher Wray resigned at the end of former President Biden’s term, and Attorney General Pam Bondi fired the ATF general counsel, Pamela Hicks, on Thursday.”
“Earlier today, I was served official notice from the Attorney General of the United States that I was being removed from my position as the Chief Counsel of ATF and my employment with the Department of Justice terminated,” Hicks wrote on her LinkedIn profile on Thursday.
“Serving as ATF Chief Counsel has been the highest honor of my career and working with the people at ATF and throughout the Department has been a pleasure,” Hicks continued in her post. “I thank my colleagues for their friendship and partnership over the years.”
Hicks had served as the ATF’s chief counsel since 2021 and served as deputy chief counsel for the ATF during the first Trump administration.
Bondi told Fox News that the people fired from the ATF had been targeting gun owners — and that was not going to happen under the new administration.
“These people were targeting gun owners,” Bondi said. “Not gonna happen under this administration.”
Patel has not publicly commented on the news.
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