Kash Patel embraces the spotlights, unlike recent FBI directors

Kash Patel flew to Miami on Air Force One last weekend to watch an ultimate combat championship event, wearing his enveloping sunglasses – at least the second time he went to a mixed martial artistic struggle as director of the FBI.

A few days earlier, he introduced himself to two NHL games, smiling in photographs with the legend of Hockey Wayne Gretzky. In one, in Washington, Mr. Patel, who played sport since his child, was spotted in the owner’s rest when he watched the capital player Alex Ovechkin to equalize the score record of Mr. Gretzky.

And since the agency was taken care of, Mr. Patel has been a notable presence at President Trump’s team, delivering a heating speech to the Ministry of Justice before Mr. Trump himself spoke and hovered behind him during the UFC match in Miami.

Mr. Patel, 44, seems to savor his new status as director, reducing a very visible path while directing the largest agency for the application of the law of the country. His embrace of the spotlight seems to be a recent break in the past. The previous directors did the job with little fanfare, deflexing any attention that could affect the work of the office.

“As a director, I had never looked for advertising or the spotlights who sometimes pick civil servants,” wrote Louis Freeh, the fifth director of the office, in his memories.

The last three directors have been a mixture of personalities, all determined to operate in terms of the president. Robert S. Mueller III was known as serious and laconic. His successor, James B. Comey, was considered a powerful speaker who did not shrink to make the headlines. Christopher A. Wray, who resigned before Mr. Trump took up his duties rather than being dismissed, fell somewhere between Mr. Mueller, who did not say enough, and Mr. Comey, who spoke too much, said former agents. (They underlined the infamous press conference of Mr. Comey and two letters at the Congress during the 2016 campaign which upset the presidential election.)