FBI Director Kash Patel has suggested that the FBI and the Ultimate Fighting Championship establish a formal relationship to improve agents' physical fitness, according to sources briefed on a virtual meeting between the agency's new leader and the heads of its 55 field offices.
It hasn't been made clear what Patel would expect the UFC to do to help boost the agents' fitness, but word about the proposal spread to agents around the country quickly, reported ABC News.
The entertainment giant is led by CEO Dana White, who helped boost President Donald Trump's election.
The FBI heads' virtual meeting, which involves each field office's special agent in charge, has been held weekly for some time, but this was Patel's first after he was sworn in as director last Friday.
"If they're trying to up their physical fitness, the UFC is very specific in their fitness," ABC News contributor Rich Frankel, a former special agent in charge of the FBI's Newark, New Jersey, office, commented.
White, whose net worth is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, has been friends with Trump for some time and last year was a major donor to his presidential campaign. He also joined Trump on stage during his victory speech in Florida in November.
Trump, during the speech, recalled helping White "a little bit" in the years when nobody was willing to host UFC fights, and said the business now is "one of the most successful sports enterprises anywhere at any time."
He also called the sport the "roughest" he's "ever seen," with fighters who "really go at it."
Trump, just days after winning the election, went to a UFC fight at New York City's Madison Square Garden where he sat in the front row between White and another major donor, Elon Musk.
Frankel told ABC that the FBI could benefit from increasing its fitness skills and said some offices have brought in martial arts experts and other people who offered fitness tips to agents.
However, Frankel, who served for two decades in the FBI, said he doesn't want the UFC to "take over the gym."
Patel on Wednesday also addressed other issues during the call, including concerns among agents after the Department of Justice in January demanded a list of FBI agents who helped in investigations after the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the Capitol.
In addition, concerns were raised about the new director's announcement that as many as 1,500 employees at the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters could be reassigned to field offices and to an FBI office in Huntsville, Alabama.
Patel also expressed his concerns about an email from the Office of Personnel Management that demanded federal employees list what they accomplished or face termination, ABC's sources said.
He also reportedly expressed concerns about the follow-up messages about the email from Trump's Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk, who has been leading the DOGE efforts.
Patel further reportedly touted the FBI's work and asked the officials to give him a chance to prove himself as the new director, the sources said.
However, he warned them he would not tolerate insubordination or leaks of information.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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