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 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 Joe Biden’s term, and Attorney General Pam Bondi fired the ATF general counsel, Pamela Hicks, Thursday. 

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

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“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.” 

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

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Both the FBI and ATF are part of the DOJ.