FBI Spy-Hunting Squads Are Short-Staffed, Sources Say
FBI teams that track foreign spies are working with large staffing gaps in field offices across the country, NPR reported on Oct. 6, 2026, citing five people familiar with the matter.
In many of the FBI's 56 field offices, counterintelligence squads — the units that investigate suspected foreign spies — have 50% to 60% of jobs filled, the sources said. In multiple field offices, the number of squads doing that work has been cut in half.
The sources said the shift did not come from a specific order from FBI Director Kash Patel to cut counterintelligence work. They said it followed a leadership focus on violent crime and immigration. Field offices moved agents and analysts to that work and did not fill the counterintelligence jobs left behind.
An FBI spokesperson said in response, "This is false — the FBI maintains a robust counterintelligence operation across the enterprise." The bureau said it has grown its counterintelligence task forces to more than 1,500 people, including staff from partner agencies and state and local law enforcement.
Patel gave a different account of results. He told Congress the FBI under his leadership arrested more spies from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea "than any FBI in history." He said that during testimony at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., in September 2026.
The FBI co-deputy director under Patel left in late September 2026 after barely a year in the job, according to Forbes. Patel has faced allegations of politicized firings after removing FBI agents and other employees over their ties to investigations involving Trump.
The broader context here is a disagreement over how to count capacity. Headquarters points to an enterprise-wide total that includes detailees and state and local partners, which adds surge help and local reach. Field-level sources point to assigned squad strength and vacancy rates, which cover daily casework, handling sources, and work tied to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law for surveillance in national security cases.
In my view, the next questions for Congress and the courts will be practical. Case agents write the affidavits. Analysts build the targeting packages. Task force officers add reach, but they do not replace cleared supervisors and long-running investigations. If vacancy rates stay at the levels described, committee staff will likely ask for staffing data office by office, transfer records, and arrest and disruption numbers broken out by fiscal year.
