New FBI Director Kash Patel is expected to become the leader of another federal agency as well -- the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), according to several news services, citing anonymous sources.
Fox News Channel and others say the FBI director who was sworn in Friday will be tapped to head the BATFE soon, though no evidence or timeline was provided by those unnamed sources.
Patel was sworn in as FBI director on Friday by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi after confirmation by the U.S. Senate as only the ninth director in FBI history, succeeding Christopher Wray.
The federal law enforcement agency was established in 1908. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began in 1972, after the original Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was originally a longtime department of the Internal Revenue Service.
There has been no implication that the two law enforcement agencies will merge, but in the current heated moment of federal agency reorganization, it shouldn't be ruled out.
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