Sen. Chuck Grassley's (R-IA) demand for answers from FBI Director Kash Patel spurred an interesting shift in the agency's messaging, a legal expert revealed Thursday.
MS NOW justice correspondent Ken Dilanian discussed the Senate Judiciary chairman's "deeply significant" demand during a live segment with anchor Alicia Menendez, explaining that it was notable that the Republican lawmaker did not make the letter public.
"So he's trying to thread the needle here, but he has a long history of conducting oversight of the spending of taxpayer money with both parties in power," Dilanian said.
"And he said that in his letter to Kash Patel... it's nothing personal. We just feel like we deserve answers about your use of taxpayer-funded resources, including your use of the FBI jet and your purchase of these BMW SUVs."
It was then Dilanian shared an update from the FBI, and noted an interesting addition he'd spotted.
"They did not respond initially when I queried them yesterday about this reporting, but I just now have a response," he said. "And one of the things they told me was that they purchased these BMWs from the State Department, and they were sitting idly in a warehouse. That is new information. That's not what they told us back in December when we first reported on this."
Dilanian described the fallout over the inquiry as Patel has faced mounting questions around his travel.
"But just in general, like this, you have this building sort of momentum of drip, drip, drip stories about Kash Patel and his use of government resources," he said. "We hear things all the time from people inside the FBI who are very troubled by it. They just don't think it's a good look. And now you have the senior Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee asking questions about it. And unlike the Democrats, he has the leverage to get these answers."