The weaponization of the FBI under the Trump administration and Director Kash Patel is entering territory America has never seen before, MS NOW justice correspondent Ken Dilanian told anchor Katy Tur on Wednesday.
This comes after bombshell allegations from Patel's acting predecessor, Brian Driscoll, that Patel is "padding" FBI statistics to make his leadership look more effective than it actually is.
"Ken, how significant is it to hear directly, hear these allegations directly from the former acting ... FBI director?" asked Tur.
"It was striking, Katy ... this is a person that Donald Trump, the Trump administration, picked to run the FBI before Kash Patel could be confirmed. And it was quite striking," said Dilanian.
"Look, we've read these allegations in the lawsuit that Brian Driscoll and some of his colleagues have filed, but he's such a colorful character," Dilanian continued. "And by the way, he is revered inside the FBI. He's done a lot of really interesting things in his career, and he's loved. And he was so, he — he was just very plainspoken and colorful and, you know, just explaining that he was not going to knuckle under to what he thought was improper political pressure. He was willing to go and work for Donald Trump and run the FBI.But then as soon as thosedemands started, for example,for the names of all the agentsthat worked on January 6thcases and other — what hethought were just improperrequests or being made of him,he just wasn't willing to do it."
"And he's alleging, of course,that, you know, Kash Patel toldhim that his job security wasessentially based on hispolitical leanings and that heneeded to show loyalty to thepresident," he added. "We've never seenthat in the modern history ofthe relationship between theWhite House and the FBI. Evenin the [J. Edgar] Hoover days, that wasn'thow it worked. And certainlypost-Watergate, it doesn't workthat way. And it's really justit's sort of shocking to hearit come from Brian Driscoll'smouth in such stark terms."