New FBI leader Kash Patel tapped to run ATF as acting director

FBI Director Kash Patel will be tapped to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), two sources confirmed to Fox News Digital on Saturday. 

The 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. 

FBI NOMINEE KASH PATEL CONFIRMED IN NARROW SENATE VOTE

Kash Patel, director of the FBI, speaks during a swearing-in ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Friday.  (Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“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. 

Hicks had served as ATF’s chief counsel since 2021 under the Biden administration, and served as deputy chief counsel for ATF under President Donald Trump’s first administration. She spent 23 years overall as an attorney within the Department of Justice (DOJ), she posted to LinkedIn. 

AG Bondi and former ATF official Pamela Hicks. (ATF/Getty Images)

VP JD VANCE SPEAKS ON ‘FUNDAMENTAL GOAL’ OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AT CPAC ADDRESS

“Serving as ATF Chief Counsel has been the highest honor of my career and working with the people at ATF and throughout the Department has been a pleasure,” Hicks continued in her post. “I thank my colleagues for their friendship and partnership over the years.” 

Kash Patel is sworn in as FBI director by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB) on Friday. (Reuters/Leah Millis)

“These people were targeting gun owners,” Bondi told Fox News on Thursday of the ATF. “Not gonna happen under this administration.” 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Both the FBI and ATF are part of the DOJ.