He's such a clown.
The gathering was relatively informal, but even so, Mr. Patel surprised other attendees when he arrived wearing a trucker hat and a green hooded sweatshirt, the former U.S. official said. Mr. Patel frequently attends official events without wearing a suit, breaking with F.B.I. tradition.
[...]
On a visit to New Zealand in July, he brought plastic 3D-printed replica pistols as gifts to senior national security officials, but they were illegal under local laws and had to be destroyed.
“To ensure compliance with firearms laws, I instructed police to retain and destroy them,” New Zealand’s police commissioner, Richard Chambers, told The Associated Press, which previously reported on the episode.
Mr. Patel had gone to Wellington to open a new F.B.I. office, an initiative that former agents had questioned as the bureau faces budget deficits.
This is like something out of a movie. The "take no prisoners" FBI director goes to the UK and he wants his guns to carry their guns 'cause they are his guys. The Brits say "We are terribly sorry but that is an impossibility." Mr. Badass Director then gets real, real mad to learn the CIA guys and the NSA guys got to carry their guns!
They said that during the trip, the Royalty and Specialist Protection Command of the Metropolitan Police told the F.B.I. that Mr. Patel’s security detail could not be armed. Britain has strict gun-control laws, and the police limit armed details based on risk assessments. The police assessment on Mr. Patel found he didn’t meet the threshold for an exemption.
The details for the heads of the C.I.A. and the National Security Agency were armed, another U.S. official said. That discrepancy prompted an emergency meeting between the F.B.I. and British security officials. The British officials held firm.
An F.B.I. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, denied that there had been a dispute over arming Mr. Patel’s detail. He acknowledged that the director had in the past pressed people on why F.B.I. details weren’t always granted allowances that other agencies got, but that he was seeking equal treatment for them, not for himself. The official also said the discussions about where to fly into involved a scheduling issue.
A funny ending to the article.
Before leaving Britain, Mr. Patel and his girlfriend joined the other security and intelligence officials for a dinner at Windsor Palace with King Charles III, according to two of the former officials. At the end of the night, the group gathered for a photograph. Mr. Patel stood next to the king.
No, it's really true! We always had economic and xenophobic reasons too!