'Fundamentally wrong:' Gun groups, Republicans condemn Noem, Patel statements; Axios, January 25, 2026

Marc Caputo, Axios; 'Fundamentally wrong:' Gun groups, Republicans condemn Noem, Patel statements

"A Minnesota gun-rights group accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI director Kash Patel of spreading misinformation about the right to bear arms at protests.

Why it matters: The Trump administration's misstatements about Alex Pretti's shooting death are damaging its credibility even with allies, especially in the gun-rights community.

• "We're getting it from all sides," a Trump adviser told Axios on Sunday.
• 
  

Zoom in: Appearing on "Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo," Patel said, "You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It's that simple. You don't have a right to break the law."

• Patel was echoing Noem, who said Saturday, "I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign."
• 
  
• The Gun Owners Caucus of Minnesota was quick to dispute Patel's statements, posting on Xthat Patel was "completely incorrect on Minnesota law. There is no prohibition on a permit holder carrying a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines at a protest or rally in Minnesota."
• 
  
• The group's president, Rob Doar, told Axios that Noem's understanding of Minnesota gun law was "fundamentally wrong," and he took issue with her statements about Pretti not having his ID while he carried his concealed weapon.
• 
  

State of play: Minnesota law does not prohibit carrying a loaded firearm to a protest, according to the caucus' webpage as well as information from gun-control advocates like Everytown.

• An FBI spokesperson said Patel wasn't speaking to the letter of the law, per se, but to the practicalities of showing up to a protest armed and coming into conflict with law enforcement.
• 
  
• Protest groups in Minnesota specifically advise demonstrators to not bring firearms or "weapons of any kind" regardless of what the law allows.
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Pressure on DHS

The big picture: President Trump was already complaining about his collapsing immigration poll numbers from videos showing aggressive DHS confrontations with citizen protesters — and that was before the Jan. 7 shooting of Minneapolis protester Renee Good, Axios first reported.

• DHS was also facing a credibility problem over misstatements by top Border Patrol enforcer Greg Bovino and by Homeland Security's spokesperson before Pretti's shooting.
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• Noem, who faces calls for impeachment from Democrats, complicated the situation with her Saturday comments.
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• Echoing a DHS statement on X, Noem said that "an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun. The officers attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect reacted violently."
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Reality check: Videos shot from different angles tell a different story. The conflict did not stem from Pretti's possession of a gun:

• Pretti had no visible weapon: He clearly had a smartphone recording video in his right hand. His left hand was free, videos show."

A Year Inside Kash Patel’s F.B.I.; The New York Times Magazine, January 22, 2026

Emily Bazelon and Rachel Poser ; Photographs by Stephen Voss, The New York Times Magazine; A Year Inside Kash Patel’s F.B.I.: Forty-five current and former employees on the changes they say are undermining the agency and making America less safe."When he returned to office last year, President Trump called the F.B.I. a “corrupt” agency in need of overhaul. He had by then been the subject of three F.B.I. investigations: Agents examined his 2016 campaign’s alleged ties to Russia, his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Though all three inquiries took place in part or entirely under Christopher Wray, the F.B.I. director Trump appointed, he repeatedly accused the bureau of mounting a partisan attack against him.To replace Wray, Trump chose Kash Patel, a former public defender and intelligence official who had never worked for the F.B.I. and had spun conspiracy theories about the bureau. Since Patel’s confirmation last February, the F.B.I. has undergone a transformation that has upended its nonpartisan rules and norms, deeply rattling many of its 38,000 employees.Patel has fired agents who worked on the Trump investigations and radically changed the bureau’s mission. More than 20 percent of the F.B.I.’s work force has been assigned to immigration enforcement, pulling agents and analysts away from investigating public corruption, cybercrime, white-collar crime, drug trafficking and terrorism. Patel has also been embroiled in controversies over his use of government resources, his temperament and missteps in high-profile investigations.We interviewed 45 employees who work at the F.B.I. or who left during Trump’s second term, as well as many other current and former government officials. Beginning with Trump’s selection of Patel, our sources narrated the events that most troubled them over the last year. Many details of what we learned are reported here for the first time.The F.B.I. is a rule-bound and tight-lipped institution. Bureau policies prohibit active employees from speaking to the news media without authorization. Even for former employees, speaking out is a sign of serious alarm. Some of our sources shared their stories anonymously because they feared retribution from the administration. (To protect their identities, we are not indicating whether the people we quote anonymously are still employed by the F.B.I.) We corroborated their descriptions of specific events and conversations with colleagues, contemporaneous notes and internal records. Patel and other F.B.I. leaders named in this article declined our requests for interviews, and we followed up with a detailed list of questions. In response to a request for comment, Ben Williamson, an F.B.I. spokesman, wrote: “This story is a regurgitation of fake narratives, conjecture and speculation from anonymous sources who are disconnected from reality. They can whine and peddle falsehoods all they want — but it won’t change the facts that the F.B.I. under this administration worked with partners at every level and delivered a historic 2025.”We also asked the White House for comment. “President Trump and F.B.I. Director Kash Patel are restoring integrity to the F.B.I. by returning its focus to fighting crime and letting good cops be cops,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement.Many current and former employees fear, however, that the F.B.I. has become a weapon of the White House, and that the firings and the diversion of resources to immigration enforcement have left the country vulnerable to attack."

So This Is Why Trump Didn’t Want to Release the Epstein Files; The Atlantic, December 24, 2025

Sarah Fitzpatrick , The Atlantic; So This Is Why Trump Didn’t Want to Release the Epstein Files

"Trump has also insisted that he knew nothing of Epstein’s criminal activity—though his critics have questioned how that could be true given their close relationship and history of chasing women together. Members of Congress from both parties have said they will continue to probe the issue in the upcoming year. Representatives I spoke with told me their takeaway from reading the files is that top officials in the Trump administration have not been honest about what was in them, and that they intend to press Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel for more information.

“Although the files are overly redacted, they’ve already demonstrated that the narrative painted by Patel in hearings, Bondi in press statements, and Trump himself on social media wasn’t accurate,” Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who co-authored the Epstein legislation, told me. “A complete disclosure consistent with the law will show there are more men implicated in the files in possession of the government.”"

Secret meetings between FBI and Ukraine negotiator spark concern; The Washington Post, December 12, 2025

John Hudson

, 

Siobhán O'Grady

 and 

Perry Stein

, The Washington Post; Secret meetings between FBI and Ukraine negotiator spark concern

 "Secret meetings between Ukraine’s top peace negotiator and FBI leaders have injected new uncertainty into the high-stakes talks to end the war there, according to diplomats and officials familiar with the matter.

Over the last several weeks, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, flew to Miami three times to meet with President Donald Trump’s top envoy, Steve Witkoff, and discuss a proposal to end the nearly four-year conflict with Russia.

But during his time in the United States, Umerov also held closed-door meetings with FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, according to four people, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential conversations.

The meetings have caused alarm among Western officials who remain in the dark about their intent and purpose. Some said they believe Umerov and other Ukrainian officials sought out Patel and Bongino in the hopes of obtaining amnesty from any corruption allegations the Ukrainians could face. Others worry the newly established channel could be used to exert pressure on Zelensky’s government to accept a peace deal, proposed by the Trump administration, containing steep concessions for Kyiv."

An F.B.I. Trainee Hung a Pride Flag Near His Desk. He Says He Was Fired for It.; The New York Times, November 19, 2025

Alan Feuer, The New York Times ; An F.B.I. Trainee Hung a Pride Flag Near His Desk. He Says He Was Fired for It.

"David Maltinsky, an F.B.I. agent-in-training, had only a dim suspicion of what was going on when he was suddenly pulled from his classmates one evening last month and called to a meeting with top officials at the academy, where he was only three weeks away from graduation.

A gay man who had previously worked as a civilian cybertech assistant in the Los Angeles field office, Mr. Maltinsky knew that the meeting might have something to do with his sexual identity — or with his wide-ranging efforts at the bureau to promote L.G.B.T.Q. issues.

What he did not expect was the letter he was handed when he arrived at the F.B.I. Academy’s front office.

It was signed by the bureau’s director, Kash Patel, he said, and announced that he was being “summarily dismissed” from the academy because of “political signage” he had once displayed at his work space in Los Angeles. The only thing that could be, he quickly realized, was a rainbow pride flag that had hung near his desk for years and had been given to him as a gift by his former bosses."

FBI leaders allege in lawsuit they were unlawfully fired over political loyalty; The Washington Post, September 10, 2025

Perry Stein , The Washington Post; FBI leaders allege in lawsuit they were unlawfully fired over political loyalty

"Before he was briefly named the FBI’s acting director early this year, Brian Driscoll says, he got a call from a Trump administration official who peppered him with a series of pointed questions that appeared to be a loyalty test.

Among them: “Who did you vote for?” “When did you start supporting President Trump?” “Have you voted for a Democrat in the last five elections?” “Do you agree that the FBI agents who stormed Mar-a-Lago … should be held accountable?”"