Army secretary Dan Driscoll replaces Kash Patel as acting ATF chief
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has replaced FBI Director Kash Patel as acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, four sources familiar with the move told CBS News.
Driscoll will stay in his job as secretary of the army while serving as acting ATF director.
Patel was named acting head of the agency in February, two Justice Department sources told CBS News at the time. Like Driscoll, Patel ran both agencies at the same time while he was in charge.
The ATF, like the FBI, is an agency within the Justice Department. It has more than 5,200 employees and a budget of approximately $1.6 billion. One of its primary responsibilities is to investigate gun crimes.
Patel replaced Marvin Richardson, the ATF's previous acting director.
It's not immediately clear what impact Driscoll's role at the ATF will have on his daily job at the Pentagon. He was on his first international trip as Army secretary when his appointment was confirmed by CBS News.
Driscoll was confirmed by the Senate as the 26th secretary of the Army in February, with a 66-28 vote.
Driscoll is a close friend and former adviser to Vice President JD Vance. Driscoll served as an officer in the Army for four years with a deployment to Iraq, according to a biography released by the Army. He left service at the rank of first lieutenant. After his military service, Driscoll received a law degree from Yale University and worked in private equity and venture capital.
Earlier this week, the Justice Department and ATF repealed a Biden-era gun policy that revoked licenses from federally licensed gun dealers if they intentionally sold weapons without running a background check or falsified records.
"This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right," said U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a press release. "The prior administration's 'Zero Tolerance' policy unfairly targeted law-abiding gun owners and created an undue burden on Americans seeking to exercise their constitutional right to bear arms – it ends today."
The administration also said it would conduct an "in-depth review" over the coming months of two other policies: the Stabilizing Brace rule, which reclassified certain firearms as short-barreled rifles, as well as a rule redefining who is "engaging in the business" of firearms dealing in the U.S.
