THE FBI's 90 DAY FILE REVIEW

A tradition in the FBI was an agent’s 120 day file review with his or her supervisor. All their files would be lugged into the supervisor’s office and they would go over everything that’s been done the last four months, and what needs to be done going forward.

“Yeah, but the title of the article is “The FBI’s 90 Day File Review,” you said.

That’s because new agents or agents on a performance improvement plan, or on probation were subject to 90 day file reviews. So, almost three months into the FBI’s new leadership, let’s talk about how I see it going.

Recap: I was supportive of Kash Patel being named FBI Director, and wrote about him and his experience in an article here in early December before he was nominated. I was less, but mildly supportive of Dan Bongino being named Deputy Director (DD), and wrote about that here recently as well. Regardless of how I feel, the FBI was broken during the Directorships of James Comey and Christopher Wray. So, Patel and Bongino’s success is the FBI’s success, which is what I’m rooting for.

THE GOOD

The shift to focusing on violent crime, major drug operations, and assisting ICE with four years of failed immigration enforcement is a major early victory for the Director and DD. Especially if it means they are out of the politically-driven investigations business. Both Patel and Bongino are doing a terrific job of highlighting success in both the traditional and social media. Their press people get it, and the FBI is in a much less defensive posture than during Comey and Wray’s tenures. Reportedly, recruitment is way up. This is a big step toward re-chroming the Bureau’s image, because historically, recruitment for FBI agents was only slightly less popular than for NASA astronauts. Success begets success.

Getting previously withheld documents on things like the JFK assassination, Crossfire Hurricane, and other high profile cases to Congress and the public is another promise kept. There is more work to do here, and if there are legal barriers (like ongoing investigations or prosecutions,) that needs to be better explained. So too could the complexity of some of these files. For example, reportedly the discovery in the Ghislaine Maxwell prosecution, (related to the Epstein files,) is more than a million pages long. Some of this is going to take time.

A quick comment about the news this week that Steven Jensen was promoted to Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) of the Washington Field Office. If you don’t know who he is, congratulations - you have a life. During his almost twenty-year career, Jensen was section chief at the FBIHQ’s Domestic Terrorism Operations Section for 18 months including during and after the events of January 6th. For some, including President Trump’s, Patel’s, and Bongino’s supporters, January 6th is a hobby horse. Every political issue is seen through the lens of what happened to the individuals arrested and prosecuted for the events of that day.

Despite the fact Trump pardoned all of them, (I should do an article on that someday,) much of the J6 crowd is outraged by Jensen’s promotion. It’s being viewed as everything from a traitorous act by Patel and Bongino, to a 4D chess move whereby Jensen has become their informant to help hunt down the real J6 “fedsurrection” conspiracy provocateurs hiding in the Bureau.

It’s neither. Section Chiefs at FBIHQ are on the outer edges of the inner circle. They are not the final word on matters of national importance. Think at least five levels down. The real decision making about what the J6 investigations and prosecutions were going to look like came from four people: Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy AG Lisa Monaco, Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney Matt Graves, and FBI Director Wray. Jensen was a functionary, not a policy maker. It’s much more likely Jensen’s entire career was looked at by the Director and DD and he was deemed the best candidate to run the Washington Field Office. Sometimes, the simplest explanation is the correct one.

THE NOT SO GOOD

Back to the PR. Yes the Director and DD are promoting the Bureau’s efforts and it’s a net positive. But just as we’re seeing with AG Bondi, DHS Secretary Noem, and to a lesser extent DNI Gabbard, some of it looks too over the top. All of the photo ops and media hits take an incredible amount of time to travel to and prepare for. A few major initial PR appearances are great, but showing up all over the country several time a week starts to make it look like a reality show. And there’s only one Apprentice in this administration.

The real downside - these people are outsiders. Just learning how their organizations work is a major crash course no matter how bright they are. Also, the threats do not stop because they are on the southwest border or the port of Miami doing photo ops. I know from first hand experience how much time previous Bureau executives spent getting briefed on and managing threats. It was considerable. Even the Director and DD only get 24 hours in a day.

There are rumors in the press that Director Patel spends considerable time at his home in Las Vegas with his 26 year old star country singer girlfriend. DD Bongino posted on social media this week that he was back in Florida visiting his wife over the weekend. I get it’s the 2020s, but these are serious jobs. One responder on social media post wrote, “So what, he’s (Bongino) entitled to personal life.” Actually, respectfully, not really. These are short-term positions, not 25 year careers. They are the generals on the front lines in a war. There are very few days off three months into the war. The worst thing that could happen to them is a bomb going off Times Square or a plane flying into a building somewhere while they are in Vegas, and South Florida.

Another poor optic is it was reported this week that DD Bogino now has a full- time FBI security detail. One of the reasons the DD has been an on-duty FBI agent the last 120 years is they were an agent first. They could go to firearms and take care of themselves, not waste precious agent resources on yet another Washington, D.C. security detail.

DD Bongino’s high profile comes from his having been a Fox News and podcast celebrity, and friend of President Trump, not the fact he’s the DD. For the most part, Americans shouldn’t know or care who the FBI Deputy Director is. If Mr. Bongino feels like he needs a security detail he might consider paying for it himself out of the millions of dollars he made in the entertainment business.

Overall, I give the FBI a rating of “Fully Successful” on their 90 Day File Review. There is more work to do to reach a Superior or Exceptional rating.

WHAT I’M WORKING ON:

Busy, busy, busy…

I’m finishing the last few chapters of Book 3 in the Detective Kiki Diaz Thriller series, MCLEAN STATION. I’m excited about the arc of this story which is much different than the first two. Here, we find Diaz dealing with the dark side of police work including substance abuse, PTSD, suicide, and the loss of brothers and sisters in the like of duty. All of the proceeds from this book, including the Audiobook, will go the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and Museum Fund, a favorite charity. Stay tuned for details.

Expect the release of the Audiobook of Book 2, ZULU CENTER, A CJ Hawk - FBI Thriller, any day now. It was almost ready to launch months ago when the original narrator became seriously ill. Fortunately, the talented Robert Ferraro jumped in and did a terrific job. I’ll post on social media when it’s out.

I wrote last month that I’d just submitted Book 3, WASHINGTON FIELD, A CJ Hawk - FBI Thriller, to the FBI for pre-publication review. This is an arcane process that needs to move into the next century. My books are fiction and written a decade after I retired. In the meantime, former FBI Deputy Directors, General Counsels, CIA chiefs and DNIs are on cable TV commenting live about the non-fiction events of the day. The rules for pre-publication review were written long before cable TV and the Internet existed.

I have a good idea for a fourth CJ Hawk thriller, as well as two ideas for a new FBI - CT Ops thriller series. To be honest, I don’t know if I want to invest in the up to seventh-month wait time for them to clear pre-publication review. It put’s my publishing schedule at almost two years to write fiction involving the FBI. I’ll let you know what I decide.

So….I have some inside baseball about the CIAs secret airline, Air America, that operated in Southeast Asia in the ‘60s and ‘70s (including some unique primary source documents.) I’m working on the outline for a thriller, maybe even a series, based on Air America. (Hint: Reality is much different than the movie by the same name.) I’m really excited about this project. It’s a fifty year old story, much as been declassified, and I never worked for the CIA, so no pre-publication review. Details to follow.

I have a short story that is part of an anthology with several other great writers that should be coming out around October. I’m sworn to secrecy on the details, but it’s white hot. The protagonist in this story could easily be a full crime novel. And might be someday.

Follow me on X (Twitter) and Instagram @fxregan, and follow everything I’m working on at www.fxregan.com

Until next time,

FX