Kash Patel may have flouted legal constraints and the FBI’s disciplinary code in prematurely divulging arrests in an alleged plot to attack this month’s Ultimate Fighting Championship bout at the White House, bureau veterans have alleged.

The FBI director was accused of “jumping the gun” by posting details on social media of five arrests in an investigation carried out in conjunction with the Secret Service.

It subsequently emerged the inquiry was sealed by a court order, theoretically constraining Patel from publicly disclosing it. There is a general prohibition against publicising information related to sealed cases while the order remains in force, under US federal law. Although exceptions exist allowing for revealing their contents, formal court authorization would be needed to do so. Patel has previously invoked court orders sealing grand jury testimony as justification for the FBI’s inability to release many of its files on Jeffrey Epstein.