MAGA loyalist Kash Patel, tapped to be President Donald Trump's FBI director, has "repeatedly undercut" the agency by pushing "false statements" about its work and practices in his books and podcast appearances, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
Patel is one of the more controversial nominees to Trump's administration, with security experts horrified at the potential for mismanagement and abuse of power. He is notorious for his sprawling conspiracy theories about the "deep state" and a lengthy enemies list that even includes some fellow Republicans.
For starters, Patel has repeatedly claimed the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election was triggered by the so-called "Steele dossier," funded partly by Hillary Clinton's campaign. "In reality, the F.B.I. opened it on July 31, 2016, three days after the officials who made that decision received a tip from the Australian government about the Trump campaign and Russian hackers, according to reports by two separate investigations into the Russia inquiry," said the Times' report. One of those investigations was from a special counsel appointed by Trump's own administration.
Patel has also lied about the wiretap of former Trump aide Carter Page, particularly in a memo he helped draft on behalf of former House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA), the Times reported.
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"An inspector general later concluded that the F.B.I. had botched the FISA applications in myriad ways, but most of the flaws it identified were not in the Nunes memo. And many of the flaws Mr. Patel claimed to exist turned out to be false or misleading when the underlying materials became public," it read.
And he has also claimed that FBI used undercover agents to instigate the January 6 riot, and that one of the rioters, Ray Epps, was planted by the FBI — both of which have been repeatedly debunked. He made elaborate assertions that the national security documents Trump stole and hoarded at Mar-a-Lago had been declassified, while providing no evidence of this and invoking the Fifth Amendment when asked to testify about it.
In another twist of irony, according to the report, "A spokeswoman for Mr. Patel, Erica Knight, took issue with the basic thrust of this article, while making some further misstatements on his behalf."
