Cash Patel will run ATF as well as the FBI

There are reports that the newly sworn-in director of the FBI, Cash Patel, will also be put in charge of another long-troubled federal law enforcement agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

The news – which has been confirmed by two sources speaking to Fox News — comes a day after Patel was sworn in as the ninth FBI director in a narrow Senate vote. 

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 posted on her LinkedIn page Thursday, confirming her termination. 

Bondi explained her decision to terminate Hicks in no uncertain terms. “These people were targeting gun owners,” Bondi told Fox News, referring to the ATF. “Not gonna happen under this administration.”

Both the FBI and ATF are part of the DOJ.

Under the Biden administration, the ATF has come under a lot of criticism from pro-Second Amendment advocates who say the agency is more concerned with gun control than gun safety.

The ATF, a law enforcement agency housed in the Department of Justice, is responsible for enforcing federal laws regarding the illegal use, sale, and trafficking of firearms and explosives, as well as the illegal diversion of alcohol and tobacco products.

It has been a frequent target of Republican lawmakers who perceive the agency as infringing on the Second Amendment, particularly as former President Joe Biden empowered it to regulate the sale of “ghost guns” and close a loophole that eased the process of buying a firearm.

Trump earlier this month signed an executive order to “halt existing policies designed to curtail the clear right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.” A White House release on that order accused the ATF of unfairly targeting gun owners.