MAGA pounces on Kash Patel for ‘trying to take credit’ for Biden-era investigation

Amid growing scrutiny from prominent MAGA figures, FBI Director Kash Patel proudly boasted Sunday about having “dismantled a $250 million fraud scheme” involving federal food aid, though conservative critics were quick to point out that Patel appeared to be taking credit for investigations launched under the Biden administration.

“The FBI is aware of recent social media reports in Minnesota,” Patel wrote Sunday in a social media post on X, referring to the alleged large-scale nutrition program fraud scheme in the North Star State. “However, even before the public conversation escalated online, the FBI had surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”

Patel’s self-congratulatory online post, however, was “misleading,” according to conservative writer and activist Christopher Rufo.

“Kash is trying to take credit for investigations and convictions that occurred under the Biden Administration,” Rufo wrote Sunday night in a social media post on X. “But the question is about the fraud that remains unpunished. When do we see arrests, mugshots, and new prosecutions?”

Patel’s reference to having dismantled a $250 million fraud scheme is a reference to an FBI investigation announced in September of 2022, when law enforcement filed federal charges against 47 defendants over a large-scale fraud scheme that "exploited a federally-funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic.” By December of this year, the number of individuals indicted had grown to 78, with more than 55 having been convicted.

Others, like X user “petebray,” a self-described “gen x bootstrapper” with more than 19,000 followers, were also quick to call Patel out for seemingly taking credit for the past administration’s investigation.