That crucial search may now be imperiled by Kash Patel, the MAGA diehard and director of the FBI, who has expressed his desire to reorient his bureau away from intelligence work. In September 2024, Patel appeared on The Shawn Ryan Show and lambasted the FBI and its leaders, claiming they’re part of a Deep State conspiracy against Trump, going back to the Russia investigation that dogged his 2016 campaign and his first years in office. “The biggest problem the FBI has had has come out of its intel shops,” he said. “I’d break that component out of it. I’d take the … employees … and send them across America to chase down criminals.”

The FBI says it’s committed to catching spies. But if Patel follows through on this idea, he might weaken or even eviscerate the Bureau’s counterintelligence capabilities, making it easier for America’s enemies — China, Russia, Iran and others — to infiltrate the U.S. government and private companies. “We’re going to catch fewer spies and only know about the spies when it’s too late,” Frank Figliuzzi, a former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, said. “That’s really dangerous.”

The prospect that the hunt for the “Fourth Man” — and other longstanding, deadly, spy vs. spy cases — might be ignored, is an affront to those who suffered and died from the betrayal, according to former counterintelligence officials. “If there’s someone out there who was the ‘Fourth Man,’” Sellers said, “there’s blood on their hands.”

‘We’ve got a fucking spy in this place’