A former high-ranking FBI official criticized President Donald Trump's choice to lead the bureau Monday — and slammed his handling of the Charlie Kirk killing.
The 22-year-old suspect in the fatal shooting was arrested after a family member turned him in, and FBI Director Kash Patel has been revealing evidence in the case on Fox News as he defends the investigation. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told "CNN This Morning" that his approach stands out as unusual.
"I guess preliminarily what stands out to me is how much we know at this point," McCabe said. "It's really remarkable in the middle of an ongoing investigation of such momentous importance for the country. It's odd and unconventional that there have been this many releases of information, particularly from the FBI director, but essentially the basics of this case are very, very solid."
"You have an individual who was pretty clearly identified on fleeing the scene from those videos that we've all seen," he added. "You've got the murder weapon has been recovered. The towel that the murder weapon was wrapped in and a screwdriver found with the murder weapon. Both bear the DNA of the subject in custody, and now, of course, we've learned of this message that he apparently delivered in this very short period of time after being confronted by his family and right before being brought to law enforcement, he apparently got on his computer and sent a message to his friends on the application Discord and sent a message that essentially confesses to the crime. So the case seems very, very strong at this point."
But despite the solidity of the evidence, McCabe said Patel was making blunders that could weaken the case at trial.
"There shouldn't be a real difference between how [Attorney General] Pam Bondi and Kash Patel are handling those questions," he said. "I think Pam Bondi is doing it the right way. The difference in what we're seeing here from what we normally experience in mass shootings is that this case has to go to a prosecution. We have a subject in custody. The state of Utah, and possibly later the federal government, are preparing to bring cases to trial.
"So in that situation, you don't want to expose evidence outside of the context of the evidence you need to put forth in the indictment to receive the indictment. Now, we're going to see later today when he is officially charged in court, what evidence the prosecutors decide to reveal in the course of that legal filing. But typically you never discuss the evidence. You don't want to put anything in jeopardy."
"You don't want to give the defense a preview of your evidence before the trial, and you don't want to put this person on trial in the public," McCabe added. "It's a violation of their due process rights and can really cause you problems down the road. In a typical mass shooting case where the mass shooter commits suicide or is killed by law enforcement in or around the shooting, you don't have those same concerns because obviously there's no prosecution to follow."
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