FBI Director Kash Patel photographed signing footage of himself at Quantico | EUROtoday

FBI Director Kash Patel has been photographed autographing pictures of himself at a two-day coaching occasion on the bureau’s academy in Quantico, Virginia, the place brokers acquired instruction from MMA fighters.

The shot of a beaming Patel – posing and giving a thumbs-up whereas sporting a UFC baseball cap and perched at a desk on which not less than two signed publicity pictures are seen – was posted on LinkedIn Monday by attendee James Swann of the U.S. Air Force.

“Had the opportunity to meet and talk with the Director of the FBI, Mr Kash Patel,” Swann wrote in his accompanying submit.

“He is a humble individual who speaks highly of his agents and the people around him. I enjoyed our conversation sir.”

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Responding to a commentator’s congratulations, Swann described Patel as a “super cool dude, down to earth and didn’t rush anyone away.”

The autograph shot was subsequently reposted to X (Twitter) by ProPublica journalist William Turton, who additionally famous in a thread that the director was carrying a pair of custom-made Nike trainers on the similar occasion.

“The shoes feature a number 9 (Patel is the 9th FBI director), a Punisher skull (a vigilante killer from Marvel Comics), and his personal logo (K$H),” Turton defined.

“The backs of the shoes show the FBI motto: ‘Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity.’ Patel was photographed wearing them at an FBI Academy event that featured UFC fighters.”

Some commentators responded by mentioning that Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mom of NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie, stays lacking greater than six weeks after disappearing from her Arizona residence, with the bureau to this point failing to resolve the thriller regardless of providing a $100,000 reward for info.

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“Epstein arrests: 0. Nancy Guthrie: still missing,” one particular person sneered above an image of Patel chugging a celebratory bottle of beer within the locker room of the victorious U.S. males’s ice hockey group on the Winter Olympics in Italy final month.

The former podcaster’s first 12 months on the bureau has been riddled with controversy, from embarrassment over his untimely announcement that an arrest had been made following the assassination of Charlie Kirk to the revelation that he fired key members of the FBI spy group that displays Iran simply previous to the outbreak of warfare with that nation.

He has additionally confronted allegations about his utilization of a personal jet to go to his country-singer girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins.

The latter has in the meantime repeatedly been pressured to disclaim baseless allegations that she is a deep-cover Mossad agent out to entrap Patel.

The couple beforehand mentioned their “love story” on a MAGA podcast hosted by Katie Miller, spouse of White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, which had the misfortune to drop in mid-December when the bureau was engaged in a manhunt for the particular person behind the taking pictures at Brown University.

The episode’s timing attracted criticism, notably from far-right activist Laura Loomer, and solely bolstered the notion that the FBI is “rudderless” beneath Patel’s command and that he’s “in over his head.”

The bureau has additionally suffered numerous vital departures in latest months, together with the lack of fellow podcaster Dan Bongino as Patel’s deputy and Marshall Yates, who led the FBI’s congressional affairs workplace.