Yesterday (April 9), Dan Driscoll was named interim head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms by the Trump administration, replacing new FBI director Kash Patel. Driscoll is expected to simultaneously run the ATF and continue with his current role as Secretary of the Army. This will be the first time the embattled agency has been placed under the Defense Department.
According to The Guardian, Trump’s aides view the ATF and its mission with skepticism and have discussed gutting the ATF or merging it with the Drug Enforcement Administration, “another small and underfunded agency that has previously been part of the Justice Department.”
“Patel has been running the FBI and the ATF for months, but it had proved to be overly burdensome, and Driscoll was selected to replace Patel as the interim head, as he was one of the few Senate-confirmed appointees available,” The Guardian wrote. “The decision to have the army secretary run the ATF could be the precursor to such a move or at least to dramatically reduce its size and scope. In recent weeks, ATF agents have been diverted to help with enforcing Trump’s immigration agenda.”
