By Sarah N. Lynch, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
Washington (Reuters) – FBI director Kash Patel was removed as acting director of the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firesty and Explosives and replaced by the American army secretary Daniel Driscoll, said seven people who are familiar with the case Wednesday.
Driscoll will continue to serve as an army secretary, while also supervising the ATF, an arm of the US Department of Justice, said three of the sources, who were given anonymity to discuss human resources that were not yet public.
Patel was sworn in as ATF's acting director at the end of February, just a few days after he was also sworn in as FBI director.
An official from the Ministry of Justice confirmed the change.
It was not immediately clear when Patel was removed from the roll. From Wednesday afternoon, Patel's photo and title of acting director were still on the website of the ATF.
The abrupt change in leadership comes at a time when civil servants of the Senior Ministry of Justice weigh whether they should merge the ATF with the US Drug Enforcement Administration as part of an attempt to save costs.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Edit by Scott Malone)
