'Going to come after you': Inside Kash Patel's 'lawfare' suit against ex-Pence official

Kash Patel, the MAGA loyalist named by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the FBI, has financially backed a lawsuit against former Trump administration official derided as a “RINO” that raises questions about how he would wield power as head of the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency.

Richard Grenell, who served as acting director of national intelligence during the first Trump administration, has confirmed in a court filing that the Kash Patel Legal Offense Trust (now known as the Kash Foundation) contributed $7,500 to support his defamation lawsuit against Olivia Troye, a former counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Mike Pence.

Grenell’s lawsuit, which is currently pending in federal court, alleges that Troye defamed him posting a reply on Twitter (now X). Troye’s tweet, a reply to Rep. Ted Lieu (R-CA) stated that prior to serving as acting director of national intelligence, Grenell, as ambassador to Germany, “tried to get Mike Pence to attend a white supremacist gathering.”

The German news outlet Der Spiegel has reported that members of the far-right party Alternative for Germany posed with Grenell at the U.S. Embassy’s Fourth of July party. The German courts have upheld a designation by the country’s domestic intelligence agency to place the party under surveillance for suspected extremism.

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Troye testified in a deposition for the case that Stephanie Dobitsch, who served in the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, told her that Grenell “tried to get Pence to meet with Nazis.” Troye also testified that Dobitsch told her that Pence did not attend the gathering. Dobitsch appears to have given the same account to Brian Murphy, who also worked in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, based on a statement by Murphy that was submitted to the court by Troye.

Murphy wrote that during a 2020 conversation with Dobitsch, she told him that Grenell had advised her during a meeting in advance of Pence’s visit to Berlin that “the vice president should meet with a German civil society group.” Murphy said Dobitsch told him that she went to the group’s office to vet them and concluded that the “group Grenell suggested was a far-right extremist group… similar to a neo-Nazi organization,” and that she advised “that meeting with the group Grenell suggested would be a political disaster for the vice president.”

Patel announced the lawsuit against Troye on his Fight With Kash website in August 2022 in an article headlined, “Fight With Kash & Ric Grenell file defamation suit against fired deep state employee.”

He also posted on Truth Social at the time: “Today, “FightWithKash.com and @grenell took decisive action against the deep state and fake news mafia.”

Jesse Binnall, who represents Grenell in the lawsuit, is listed as a member of the board of directors for the Kash Foundation on its 2023 990 report.

In a motion to dismiss filed in federal court in May, Troye argued that the lawsuit, with Patel’s financial backing, is part of a “lawfare MAGA campaign to silence critics.” The lawsuit, she said, is intended by Grenell and his lawyers “to silence and punish those who criticize them and other MAGA luminaries.”

In another filing, Troye described the suit as “a political stunt at its heart to stifle criticism and cause perceived opponents to incur legal fees so that they would shy away from further comments.”

Reached by phone, Binnall acknowledged questions from Raw Story and said he would confer with Grenell, but the two men did not respond in time for publication.

Grenell, who was reportedly a final candidate for the secretary of state position before being passed over in favor of Sen. Marco Rubio, hailed Patel’s nomination on Instagram on Sunday. Grenell referred to Patel, who worked under him at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as “my brother from another mother.”

Patel has made no secret of his desire to enact retribution against Trump’s perceived political opponents.

“We will go and find the conspirators — not just in government, but in the media,” he told Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, in 2023. “Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens to help Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly.”

In an interview with Raw Story, Troye warned that Patel could use his position as FBI director to carry out vendettas against anyone who runs afoul of Trump, including Republicans.

“There’s nothing to stop him from making up bogus charges and doing frivolous investigations,” she said. “And then the question is — it’s going to fall on the workforce to stand against things that they know are not legal or viable. But how long will that workforce be able to hold the line? Do I have faith in law enforcement and the integrity of many of these people who serve in these roles? Yes. However, depending on how many people they go in and fire, lawfully or unlawfully, just how many people fall in line remains to be seen.”

Patel could not be immediately reached for comment for this story.

Troye added that the combination of Patel and Pam Bondi, whom Trump has named to serve as attorney general, “is very dangerous because she could provide top cover for Patel to carry out some of these things.”

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