Brian Driscoll

He was very explicit about it.

There's a man named Walt Giardina that a lot of people talk about, uh, because he was fired three weeks after his wife died of cancer, and Brian Driscoll, who was the acting director at the time, tried to stop that, and in his lawsuit, he says that Patel told him privately, "Look, I can't save everyone.

I'm under a lot of political pressure here." Those are the allegations that, that have been made in Brian Driscoll's lawsuit.

Uh, and, and this is, this story's been repeated over and over again.

Yes, he's right.

They absolutely do, Ali, and it's a great point.

I was talking to Brian Driscoll this morning, the former, uh, acting director of the FBI who was fired by the Trump administration, and he is making that point, too.

As much as we're all, uh, saddened and concerned about the brain drain from the FBI and other agencies and the people who have left, there are a lot of rank and file who remain, a lot of veterans of the war on terror, counterterrorism experts-

Yeah

friendDown to see the memorial this week and it's just so extraordinarily moving.

Let's also bring into the conversation MS Now justice and intelligence reporter Ken Dilanian, and former acting FBI director at the start of President Trump's second term, Brian Driscoll.

Brian, I want to ask you how, uh, how we're doing, uh, uh, in, in 2026.

After 9/11 of course you remember, everybody remembers the thousands qu- thousands and thousands of questions that were asked.

Uh, but I talked to a lot of people for a story that I recently published who are even more pessimistic than, than Brian is about the state of affairs right now.

Because, uh, the FBI, for example, has been hollowed out.

More than 1,100 special agents left the FBI, including Brian Driscoll, last year.

Some forced out, some of, of their own volition because they don't want to work for this director.

We- Tyler is, you know, my co-host, big Notre Dame fan.

We've had Brian Driscoll from ours break down on our show multiple times.

Nobody does a better job probably in the entire country of covering their own team more than Brian Driscoll.

Dude's a ball knower.

And we had him on preseason last year, and we were stunned that going into that game, first game of the year against Miami, that they still hadn't named a starting quarterback yet.

Um, in the case of what's happening in the military, it's the family members of a soldier who they say tried to take his life.

Um, in the case of the Department of Justice, it's people like Brian Driscoll who come out and talk about the loyalty test he was, um, subjected to.

Um, but it is- It is the same story.

It is sacrificing the good of the country for personal fealty to Donald Trump and using subpar people to do that.

Glad to have you with us on this Wednesday.

I had to stop and think about what day it was, even though Brian and Driscoll and I were just talking about what day it is behind the scenes before we started.

I made up a new little radio open here, and the internet didn't want to let it start in time.

So we were just a little bit off in terms of our timing.

Hopefully we get everything synced up here.

As we go along, but we got some new, fresh new opens for the start of the season, which of course is just four days away.

Brian, I'm just going to say, you look like you're in mid-season, you know, condition right now.

Are you okay? You look like you're dragging maybe a little bit as we get ready

And as I said, Joyce Vance and I talk about the strength of that motion a little bit later in the show in the interview.

But Andy and I also discuss the lowering of standards at the FBI, and why St. Drizz, Brian Driscoll, and Jensen were fired.

We figured out why.

And then of course, [laughs] uh, Andy has been doing hits all over the place on the, the John Bolton raid.

And so because I pointed all this shit out.

He fired the former acting director of the FBI, a guy named Brian Driscoll, who just got caught in the crossfire because he told Driscoll to fire the pilot.

And Driscoll's like, no, I'm not going to do that.

So then he fired Driscoll.