A person who has been affiliated with Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX and a former aide to one of the FBI\u2019s toughest congressional critics are working as advisers to the bureau\u2019s director, four current and former FBI officials told NBC News. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two are among at least four people who have been brought into the FBI to advise its director, the current and former officials said. At least two of the new advisers are retired FBI agents, one of whom, Tom Ferguson, was an aide to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a staunch Trump ally and vocal FBI critic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The arrival of the person who has been affiliated with Space X has not been previously reported. NBC News has not confirmed the person\u2019s name. A spokesperson for SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not clear who facilitated the arrival of the new advisers or what areas they are focusing on. A spokesperson for Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick for FBI director, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did the FBI. Patel’s Senate confirmation hearing is Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former FBI officials said the new advisers have sparked concerns that people with ties to partisan political figures will be helping run the country\u2019s most powerful law enforcement agency. While some FBI officials briefed on the arrangement are hopeful that it could result in needed reforms, others fear a compromise of the bureau\u2019s decades-old tradition of distancing itself from politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike the Justice Department, the FBI has no political appointees other than its director, whom the president picks for what is supposed to be a 10-year term. Much as is the case at the CIA, nearly everyone else who works at the FBI is a career civil servant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That structure was created after the death in 1972 of longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who had agents meddle in politics for decades, covertly surveilling and smearing political leaders and groups \u2014 from the far-right John Birch Society to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rob D\u2019Amico, a former FBI agent who served on the bureau\u2019s hostage rescue team and in Afghanistan, said he has been told the outsiders are there to advise the FBI on how to reform itself, including sending headquarters employees out into the field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s absolutely needed,\u201d he said. \u201cThings have gotten too headquarters-centric, and when headquarters is in D.C., the natural thing that happens in D.C. is that things get political.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, D\u2019Amico said, it is not normal to have people with ties to partisan political figures on the seventh floor, as FBI employees call the director\u2019s office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis will have to be done very carefully,\u201d D\u2019Amico said. \u201cHow does that chain of command work? You have to be very careful that it doesn\u2019t become like the Russian political officer on a Russian nuclear sub, enforcing party discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gregory Mentzer, another former FBI agent, is working in the FBI director\u2019s office, according to his LinkedIn profile<\/a>. Mentzer, who retired as an FBI agent in 2018 and had been working as contract firearms instructor at the FBI Academy, lists his affiliation as simply \u201cDirector\u2019s Office, FBI.\u201d Mentzer did not respond to a message sent via LinkedIn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ferguson, the retired FBI agent and former aide to Jordan, lists himself as \u201cSenior Policy Advisor, Director\u2019s Advisory Team,\u201d on his LinkedIn profile<\/a>. Asked by NBC News via LinkedIn about his role at the FBI, Ferguson replied that he was \u201cjust going back home to help.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ferguson said in a LinkedIn post<\/a> that he was leaving his position at the House Judiciary Committee to serve \u201cin the new administration.\u201d He called his work there the \u201chonor of a lifetime\u201d and added, \u201cequally awesome was the chance to work with and for Jim Jordan, a legend from my great home state of OH.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ferguson referred questions to a spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee, who declined to comment. CNN previously reported<\/a> Ferguson\u2019s hiring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has regularly accused the FBI, without citing specific evidence, of being a corrupt tool of the Biden administration. He claimed the FBI helped suppress a story about Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop computer and retaliated against whistleblowers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jordan says the FBI has engaged in politically motivated investigations of Trump, singling out former Director James Comey and his top aides for criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jordan is also a vocal supporter of Trump\u2019s nominee, Patel, who has called the FBI “one of the most cunning and powerful arms of the Deep State<\/a>,” a reference to partisan claims that career government officials have secretly plotted to undermine Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ferguson has waded forcefully into some of the country\u2019s most divisive culture war issues in posts on LinkedIn, including debates over race and gender. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe overwhelming majority of Americans, my family included, are tired of having the false narrative of \u2018systemic racism\u2019 forced down our throats,\u201d Ferguson wrote in a 2021 post criticizing Disney for its \u201cwoke\u201d posture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to news report<\/a>s<\/a> and social media posts, Ferguson was involved in school board protests in Fairfax County, Virginia, some of which received national coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n