FBI Veterans Form Support Network to Aid Employees Under Patel Restructuring

Former FBI officials have established the FBI Support Network, an offshoot of the Justice Connection organization, to provide legal, mental health, and job search assistance to current bureau employees, according to the New York Times as relayed by the Philadelphia Inquirer 12. The network's director is Michael Feinberg, a former counterintelligence ASAC who told the Times that a "wide gulf" exists between Patel's public statements and what the workforce observes daily; its advisory committee includes Brian Driscoll, who briefly served as acting director in early 2025 before being fired in August, former senior executive Michael Mason, who said employees "are being fired without any due process," and former training division assistant director Brian Dugan 12. Patel has denied politically motivated terminations, insisting firings target agents biased against the president, but Democratic lawmakers confronted him at congressional hearings and accused him of lying to Congress 12.