Cash Patel, director of the FBI, said as a temporary head of the alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives office and replaced by Daniel Drskol, the Minister of the Army, and four people with knowledge of the switch on Wednesday. The very unusual step puts a civilian military leader responsible for the entity of local law enforcement.
White House officials decided to switch in late February, after Mr. Patel was appointed as ATF director, because the responsibilities of managing two agents were taking a long time, according to an official who was briefed on the situation. The person said that Mr. Drichol was chosen because he was one of the few appointed to the Senate.
Officials said that Mr. Drichol, a veterans in the Iraq war, is close to Vice President JD Vance, last week that he had been handed over the reins of the Small Federal Agency responsible for enforcing arms laws in the country.
Mr. Drichol was traveling in Germany on Wednesday and was not immediately available for comment. But an official in the Ministry of Defense confirmed that Mr. Drichol had assumed the temporary leadership of ATF with very little notice in recent days. The official did not know exactly when Mr. Drichol assumed his additional duties.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decision was announced for ATF supervisors on Wednesday morning. Many agency staff have left and worried that the key would mean a great calibration of their mission at a time when hundreds of firearms investigators were transferred to support immigration enforcement efforts.
While the appointment of Mr. Patel, a former alternative to the Trump campaign, to the ATF administration, was seen by doubt, the emptying of an agency consisting of the Ministry of Justice to the Pentagon official is a completely new thing.
This step comes in a moment of chaos in Atflies to a large extent
Mr. Patel spent most of his time in the FBI administration and the Ministry of Justice I suggest integrating ATF with the Drug Control DepartmentIt is a plan that left the professional leadership of the Improving Agency. However, this step is unlikely to take place any time soon.
Some fear that the plan to integrate the drug control department and ATF will be an excuse for both entities, which are the smallest and most approved entities in the Ministry of Justice. It is unlikely to improve the replacement of the morale of the morale.
This week, Prosecutor Bam Bondi, under pressure from arms rights groups, announced plans to cancel the policy of “absolutely tolerance” in ATF, which was established four years ago, and the licenses of firearms that have found laws and federal regulations have been approved repeatedly.
Mrs. Bondi Al -Sayed Patel also ordered a review of two other main policies that were appointed under the Biden Administration, taking into account the disposal of both. One of them is a ban on the so -called pistol clips used to convert pistols into gun -like weapons, and the second is a base that requires examination of the background on private weapons sales.
Eric Schmidt The reports contributed.
