Kash Register: Director Patel Should Be Asked ALL of These Questions—Under Oath
 |
Kash Register: Director Patel Should Be Asked ALL of These Questions—Under Oath
The man who knows too much, understands too little, and tells the truth even less has a lot to answer for.
 |
Kash Patel is like Capitol policeman Eugene Goodman—only, instead of diverting a horde of angry, violent MAGA insurrectionists from the Senate chamber, he diverted the American people from the truth. And instead of doing it just once, he does it on the regular—including on the topic of the January 6th coup attempt that Goodman helped foil.
Patel has, let us say, an uneasy relationship with the truth. In the ballots case, a Colorado judge found that the now-FBI Director “was not a credible witness,” writing that his “testimony regarding Trump authorizing 10,000-20,000 National Guardsmen” on J6 was “not only illogical (because Trump only had authority over about 2,000 National Guardsmen), but completely devoid of any evidence in the record.”
Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare described an “odor of mendacity” emanating from Patel during his January 2025 confirmation hearing. “I am not, to be clear, accusing him of perjury,” Wittes writes. “I am accusing him, rather, of showing a lack of candor in yesterday’s hearing.” Candor, he explains, “has specific meaning in the FBI,” and its demonstrated lack is often grounds for termination. “Patel failed to meet this standard—miserably and dramatically and repeatedly.”
Patel is the same guy who, when asked at that hearing if he was familiar with the rightwing extremist podcaster Stew Peters, said, “Not off the top of my head”—and then was reminded that he’d appeared as a guest on The Stew Peters Show not once, not twice, but eight times.¹
He claimed that he had nothing to do with the dissemination of QAnon deza—which is perfectly true, if you don’t count all the times he did just that.
And, as Wittes points out, Patel
repeatedly misrepresented his own statements when confronted with them. He pretended they were taken out of context. He pretended senators were misrepresenting his meaning. He pretended they were mere “snippets” of a larger argument that had meant something else. In some cases, he refused to acknowledge having said or written the items at all, saying to the senators questioning him that he did not have the comment in front of him.
And that was while under oath! At his confirmation hearing! To be FBI Director! On his media appearances, and on his podcast, and in his interviews, his fidelity to the facts wavers even more.
I don’t trust Patel as far as I can throw him. Indeed, it speaks to the batshit-craziness of the current moment that this buffoonish individual with a yen for yarns and taste for tall tales has managed to involve himself in so many matters of dire national interest. Even if put on the stand, under penalty of perjury, he is unlikely to provide honest testimony, as the Colorado judge suggested.
Regardless, Kash Patel knows too much not to disclose more. He has a lot to answer for. And the American people deserve an honest accounting.
What I want is for Wonder Woman to bind him with her Lasso of Truth and ask Patel the following questions:
Steele Dossier
You first came into the national spotlight while working for Devin Nunes on the House Intelligence Committee. According to the Washington Times, a conservative publication, you were the one who “cracked the code.” In other words, it was you who concocted the false narrative that Christopher Steele’s dossier was somehow responsible for the FBI opening the investigation into Trump/Russia. That amounted to a disinformation campaign, and did nothing but make Mr. Steele’s life miserable and compromise our national security. Is the reporting accurate that you came up with that line of attack?
Now that it has been debunked a number of times—including in 2020 by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee in Volume 5 of its report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, and also by the 2019 report written by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz—do you still believe it? And if so, why should anyone take your word over that of a DOJ Inspector General or the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee—especially when the 2020 chair of that committee, Marco Rubio, is currently the Secretary of State?
Classified Information
In 2020, the Central Intelligence Agency, which at the time was headed by Gina Haspel, referred you to the DOJ for a criminal investigation to determine, as CNN reported, if you “shared classified information about the Russia probe with people in the government not authorized to see it.” CNN cites four sources for this story, which continues:
The CIA claimed in its referral [that] Patel circulated a memo in 2020 to people inside the US government about Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, two of the sources told CNN. The spy agency had not authorized that information to be released or declassified, and some of the people who received the memo didn’t have the proper level of clearance to see its contents, the sources said.
Did you release that classified information? To whom? What was the CIA referring to here?
Niger
According former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who wrote about the incident in his book, you informed the DOD on October 30, 2020, that Secretary of State Mark Pompeo had received permission from the Nigerien government for a team of Navy SEALs to enter Niger’s airspace to rescue an American who’d been taken hostage. Both Esper and Pompeo deny this. Why did you give the green light, endangering our military and the kidnapped American, when it was not in your authority to do so?
If this account is not true, then why do Esper, Pompeo, and General Anthony Tata—who reportedly dressed you down—say otherwise? Pompeo and Tata are hardcore Trump loyalists; are you calling them liars?
Ukraine / Perfect Call
You worked for Ric Grenell when he was Acting Director of National Intelligence. According to National Security Counsel advisor Fiona Hill, you were “improperly becoming involved in Ukraine policy and [were] sending information to Mr. Trump,” mucking up the works. How were you involving yourself in Ukraine policy? What were you hoping to accomplish? What information were you sending to Mr. Trump? And if this is not true, why would Hill have formed that impression?
At the time, you told Axios that “At no time have I ever communicated with the president on any matters involving Ukraine.” Now that you’re under oath, would you care to repeat that denial?
J6
In the last days of the first Trump Administration you were the chief of staff for Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who, on January 4, 2021—two days before the insurrection—sent a bizarre memo to the Secretary of the Army effectively neutering the National Guard in advance of January 6th. What role did you play in the drafting of that memo? Why was it sent? What were you doing on January 6, 2021, as the Capitol was being besieged by Trump’s insurrectionists?
On your podcast, Kash’s Corner, you alleged on numerous occasions that the FBI was somehow involved in J6. The entire episode of November 22, 2022 is titled “What Did the FBI Know Before Jan. 6?” You alleged that the “FBI’s Confidential Human Source Corruption Coverup Network” was the prime mover of the storming of the Capitol. “The question that has to be answered is, when did the FBI put those guys in, and where? And did those confidential human sources engage people who are not going to conduct criminal activity and convince them to do so?”
You’ve now been FBI Director for 14 months. Did you find any proof of this assertion? If so, please share it.
And note that if you found proof but refuse to disclose it, we will assume that the “FBI’s Confidential Human Source Corruption Coverup Network” is actually just one corrupt FBI CHS: Donald Trump.
While we’re on the subject, please tell us about Trump’s history as an FBI rat.
 |
|
Presidential Records
In 2022, Donald Trump designated you and the conspiracy-peddling “journalist” John Solomon as his representatives “for access to Presidential records of [his] administration.” You immediately set about trying to secure from the National Archives & Records Administration, or NARA, a “binder of materials” concerning the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation. You were not able to do this. Why was accessing that binder so important? What did you and Solomon plan to do with it?
Please describe your duties as designee, and what Trump tasked you to accomplish. Did you do anything else, as Mr. Trump’s presidential records designee, aside from trying to get your hands on that binder?
Can a President declassify documents with his mind?
In your voluminous correspondence with NARA, you claimed to have a TS/CSI level security clearance, something NARA was unable to verify. Was this ever resolved? Did you ever hold such a security clearance? If so, why was NARA unable to confirm it? If not, why did you think you did?
Speaking of security clearances: at the time of your confirmation hearing, CNN reported that
a “flag” was placed in Patel’s security clearance file by intelligence officials who wanted to document their broader concerns about Patel and recommend him for further investigation, according to sources familiar with the move.
Another person familiar with the matter said flags are commonly placed in security clearance files of people who have been referred for criminal investigation. The flag remains on Patel’s file inside the FBI’s clearance database, according to people familiar with it.
What’s up with that? Why were you flagged? Are you still flagged?
Arctic Frost
In October of 2022, a few months into your role as Trump’s presidential records designee, you appeared before a grand jury in Jack Smith’s documents case. You did not answer any questions, but rather pleaded the Fifth, which protects us from self-incrimination.
“The mob takes the Fifth Amendment. If you are innocent why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” That last question was actually asked—in a general way and not about you specifically, to be clear—by your boss, Donald Trump. But we’d like you to answer it.
To get to the truth, you were granted immunity in exchange for your testimony. Did you then testify to anything you needed immunity for, or that you pleaded the Fifth for? Why is your testimony so hush-hush?
Recently, it was discovered that Smith, as part of his investigation, “sought extensive personal data, including more than two years of phone records, text messages and financial information,” per the Independent’s Jana Winter, citing a Reuters report.
Winter continues:
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team issued these subpoenas to Verizon Communications, targeting Patel’s communications. The demands were made as part of Smith’s broader inquiry into whether President Donald Trump had interfered with the 2020 election and concealed classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The precise nature of Smith’s investigation into Patel, and any specific allegations of wrongdoing, remains unclear, according to Reuters. These new documents concerning Patel were authorized for public release by Republican Senators Charles Grassley, Ron Johnson, and Ted Cruz. Their disclosure precedes a subcommittee hearing scheduled for Tuesday, focusing on Smith’s investigation, which was code-named Arctic Frost.
What’s interesting is that, while there has been plenty of reporting that you were being investigated as part of the documents case, Arctic Frost does not refer to the classified documents investigation. Arctic Frost refers to the investigation into the plot to overturn the 2020 election results. Why would Smith have been looking into your communications for that case, do you think?
King Donald
In 2022, you wrote what Salon called “the worst children’s book of all time.” The Plot Against the King is basically the same debunked disinformation campaign you invented while an investigator at House Intelligence, but in the form of a kids’ picture book. What prompted you to write this toadyish ode to “King Donald?” How much money did you make from it? Did conservative organizations purchase it in bulk?
V for Vendetta
In a 2023 appearance on The War Room, the podcast of convicted felon and Trump pardon recipient Steve Bannon, you were asked, “Kash, I know you’re probably going to be head of the CIA. But do you believe that you can deliver the goods on this in a pretty short order of the first couple of months so we can get rolling on prosecutions?” Here was your response:
Yes, we got the bench for it, Bannon, and you know, those guys, I’m not going to go out there and say their names right now so the radical left wing media can terrorize them. But, excuse me, the one thing we learned in the Trump administration, the first go around is we got to put in all American patriots top to bottom and we got them for law enforcement, we got them for intel collection, we got them for offensive operations, we got them for DOD, CIA, everywhere.
And the one thing we will do that they never will do is we will follow the facts and the law and go to courts of law and correct these justices and lawyers who have been prosecuting these cases based on politics and actually issuing them as lawfare.
We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.
We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminal or civilly, we’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice, and Steve, this is why they hate us. This is why we’re tyrannical. This is why we’re dictators—because we’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.
There were concerns at the time that you had a personal vendetta against members of the media who have been critical of Mr. Trump, as well as politicians like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, towards whom you seem to have particular animus. That has borne out. You have purged the FBI of a lot of good agents, just for having worked on the Russia investigation. The DOJ has moved heaven and earth to try and indict the likes of James Comey, Tish James, and John O. Brennan with whatever invented crimes they can come up with.
Did the FBI help with these bogus investigations? If so, why is the Bureau wasting resources on this? Was this done on orders from President Trump? Will you tell us, under oath, that all of this activity was not some sort of payback? That this is all unbiased?
Lawfare & SLAPP
You have filed defamation lawsuits against the New York Times, Politico, CNN, Jim Stewartson, Frank Figliuzzi, and, now, Sarah Fitzpatrick and the Atlantic. Across those six defamation lawsuits, you have asked for over $365 million in damages. Have you won any of these cases? How much recompense have you received?
You’ve also sued the Defense Department as well as former FBI Director Christopher Wray and DOJ officials. Did you win any of those cases?
Do you know what a SLAPP lawsuit is, Mr. Patel?
Would you consider yourself a public figure? Do you understand that no one would care about you at all if you were not a public figure? Would you consider your girlfriend, the country musician Alexis Wilkins, a public figure? You went to law school. Can you recall what extraordinary protections the First Amendment provides to citizens speaking about public figures? Can you tell us what “actual malice” means?
Why do you think it’s appropriate for the nation’s “top cop” to file so many lawsuits?
Kash Bar
Your complaint against the Atlantic claims that Sarah Fitzpatrick’s
assertions that Director Patel drinks to the point of obvious intoxication at Ned’s in Washington, D.C. and to excess at the Poodle Room in Las Vegas, and that his drinking “has been a recurring source of concern across the government,” are false. Director Patel does not drink to excess at these establishments or anywhere else, and this has not, and has never been, a source of concern across the government.
Have you ever consumed alcohol at Ned’s and at the Poodle Room? What kind of alcohol? When you go to those establishments, how many drinks, if any, do you consume, on an average night out? What, in your view, would be “drinking to excess?” Have you ever blacked out from drinking?
Your complaint says: “Prior to publication, the FBI expressly informed Defendants that each of these allegations was ‘totally false.’” Who is meant by “FBI” in that sentence? Every single individual that works for the Bureau? Or is this a case of l’État, c’est moi, and “FBI” refers specifically to Kash Patel?
Your complaint further points out that the allegations of drunkenness “echoed a similar fabrication previously aired by MSNBC’s Frank Figliuzzi on Morning Joe—anonymously sourced reporting that was later retracted by MSNBC and that is the subject of pending defamation litigation.” The legislation referred to, of course, was subsequently thrown out of court.
What Figliuzzi actually said was, “Yeah, well, reportedly, he’s been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building.” You imply that this is some sort of coordinated Deep State false narrative—but isn’t it more likely, and more plausible, that the Atlantic’s findings “echoed” Figliuzzi’s comment because they are grounded in fact?
You are aware that a video of you chugging alcohol from a bottle in the locker room of the U.S. Men’s Hockey Team was widely circulated, right?
How would you know what FBI employees say about you behind your back? Are you having them surveilled?
Epstein Files
The Epstein files are “sitting on my desk right now to review,” AG Pam Bondi told FoxNews host John Roberts back in February 2025. “That’s been a directive by President Trump.” Five months later, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, clarified that remark, explaining to a heated Pete Doocy of FoxNews that when the AG said the “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now to review,” what she really meant was “the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. That’s what the Attorney General was referring to.”
We don’t need to point out that while a “client list” is at most a few pages long, and thus could fit neatly next to Bondi’s name plaque and family photos, perhaps tucked under a mug of pens, there is no desk in the entire DOJ facility that could accommodate “the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper” related to Jeffrey Epstein. From your perch as FBI Director, what did Bondi really mean? Is there a client list? If not, why did the FBI, which presumably has collected all the evidence, not produce one?
Donald Trump’s name appears frequently in the Epstein Files. How frequently? More than twenty thousand times? More than a hundred thousand times? More than a million times, as Rep. Jamie Raskin said?
On July 7, 2025, Pam Bondi’s DOJ and your FBI released an undated, unsigned two-page memo effectively exonerating Jeffrey Epstein—the notorious sex trafficker, Ponzi schemer, fake financier, ephebophilic predator, international spy, and formerly, for the better part of a decade and a half, Donald Trump BFF—of blackmail. Axios was the first to report the story.
In an “exhaustive review of investigative holdings relating to Jeffrey Epstein,” in which the Bureau “conducted digital searches of its databases, hard drives, and network drives as well as physical searches of squad areas, locked cabinets, desks, closets, and other areas where responsive material may have been stored” and unearthed “a significant amount of material, including more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence” showing “images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography,” the FBI, despite moving heaven and earth to review every last jpeg in its painstaking investigation, found “no incriminating ‘client list’” and “no credible evidence…that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.”
What you are saying, it appears, is that for two decades, Epstein recruited minors, groomed them into sex slaves, forced them to service rich and prominent individuals, secretly filmed the proceedings, and then, with 300 gigabytes of some of the most valuable kompromat ever collected, did…absolutely nothing with it. Is that an accurate interpretation of that letter? If so, was that the consensus opinion of the Bureau, or just your own conclusion?
And the kicker: “No further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” How did you arrive at this conclusion?
Why did nobody sign the document?
Rep. Massie said to you, at a House hearing in September:
Director Patel, I watched some of your Senate hearing yesterday when Senator Kennedy asked you, “You’ve seen most of the files. Who, if anyone, did Epstein traffic these women to besides himself?” You replied, according to the transcript, “There is no credible information that he trafficked them to anyone else.”
What makes information “credible?” Are accounts from all of the Epstein survivors not credible, in your estimation? If not, why not?
Massie went on:
You also said somewhere in the hearing and here today that the problem is that the case files are constrained by limited search warrants from 2006 to 2007 and that the non-prosecution agreement hamstrung future investigations. Those constraints only applied to the Southern District of Florida.
They do not apply to the Southern District of New York, the location of the 2019 sex trafficking indictment, which produced many things including a series of FD-302 documents. According to victims who cooperated with the FBI in that investigation, these documents in FBI possession—your possession—detail at least 20 men, including Mr. Jes Staley, CEO of Barclays Bank, who Jeffrey Epstein trafficked victims to, victims including minors such as Virginia Roberts Giuffre—may she rest in peace.
That list also includes at least 19 other individuals: one Hollywood producer worth a few hundred million dollars, one royal prince, one high-profile individual in the music industry, one very prominent banker, one high-profile government official, one high-profile former politician, one owner of a car company in Italy, one rock star, one magician, at least six billionaires, including a billionaire from Canada. We know these people exist in the FBI files, the files that you control. I don’t know exactly who they are, but the FBI does. Have you launched any investigations into any of these people, and have you seen these 302 documents?
Have you launched any investigations into any of these people, and have you seen these 302 documents? Why is the FBI not doing further investigations into Jes Staley and Leon Black? Why did the FBI not further investigate Jane Doe 4? Why is it left to Congressional Democrats and Massie to look into this?
Donald Trump seems terrified that information in the Epstein Files will come out. What information, specifically, does he not want released? What did he do, Mr. Patel? Was he lying when he told 60 Minutes that he wasn’t a rapist or a pedophile?
What are you covering up on his behalf?
Director’s Cuts
Why did you hire Dan Bongino, of all people, to be your deputy? Why did he leave?
Why was it necessary to travel to Italy, during the Milan Olympic Games, to meet with Italian officials and the U.S. ambassador to Italy, and owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, Tilman Fertitta? How much did the trip cost? Couldn’t it have been done remotely?
Did you really take a government jet to see your girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, do a concert? Did you really dispatch a Bureau SWAT team to provide security for her? Is it true that you ordered the FBI to investigate the New York Times reporter who wrote an unfavorable story about her?
Two weeks ago, you appeared on a business segment of Fox News and implored America to “wake up and prioritize Israel.” The Bureau is a domestic law enforcement agency; why are you qualified to speak about foreign policy? Is it appropriate for an FBI Director to appear on a partisan program and lobby for a political position? Why is prioritizing Israel, a country whose leader, Bibi Netanyahu is actively committing genocide, so important to you? Who influenced your position on this?
|
In November, you took to X to defend your girlfriend against lies being told about her allegiances. “The disgustingly baseless attacks against Alexis — a true patriot and the woman I’m proud to call my partner in life — are beyond pathetic. She is a rock-solid conservative and a country music sensation who has done more for this nation than most will in ten lifetimes. I’m so blessed she’s in my life,” you wrote. “Attacking her isn’t just wrong — it’s cowardly and jeopardizes our safety. My love of family will always be my cornerstone, and you will never tear that down or keep me from them.” Good on you for coming to her defense. When your personal email was hacked by the Iranian Handala Hack Team, it emerged that the username “spiderkash” appeared on various porn sites. Is that your account? Do you still use it?
Why did you go to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner? Is this the sort of thing the FBI Director has previously, or ever should, attend? Where were you when the shots were fired? Where was Wilkins? What role did you play in the aftermath?
Conflict of Interest
With your old boss Devin Nunes, you sat on the Board of Directors of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), also known as DJT Media, the Trump-owned corporation Donald Trump formed after leaving office in 2021. What exactly did you do there? Is it not a conflict of interest for the Director of the FBI to have, or even to have had, a highly-paid side hustle working for the President of the United States?
At your swearing-in ceremony, you acknowledged Pam Bondi and remarked on how “freaking cool” it was that you both had these big important jobs. She, too, was a stakeholder in TMTG.
When questioned on this conflict of interest last January, you wrote, “On January 28, 2025, the TMTG board convened without my presence or participation and awarded all board members—including myself—compensation for past services provided, including a monetary award and shares,” adding, “Even though this represented compensation for past services I had provided, out of an abundance of caution and to avoid any appearance of any conflict, I did not and will not accept that compensation.” The company announced that you had stepped down as a director.
We commend you for doing so. Bondi, as you know, did not; she sold $1-5 million in TMTG shares right before Trump made his big tariff announcement on April 2—and watched the stock tank right after.
However, according to a report by Accountable.us, you had yet to file “the relevant paperwork with the Office of Government Ethics as of March 26, 2025.” Was that paperwork ever filed? Did you decline the stock options, as you promised to do?
Is there any sort of agreement—either via written contract or wink-wink-nudge-nudge-under-the-table-handshake—with TMTG that you will receive deferred compensation after you step down as FBI Director?
Did Trump, or anyone acting on his behalf, promise you anything, explicitly or implicitly, when your time in government is over, in exchange for being loyal to the President?
Have you ever been offered, or asked for, a presidential pardon? If so, why?
Thank you, Mr. Patel, for being so forthcoming today. The next round’s on us.
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore. Kash Patel speaking with attendees at the 2024 FreedomFest at Caesars Forum Conference Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Note: Wittes and Anna Bower at Lawfare produced an excellent “Patel Dossier” that is recommended reading and was super helpful in writing this piece.
SPLC says: “Peters positions himself as a courageous whistleblower who exposes globalist elites, but his content rests on virulent antisemitism, Holocaust denial and appeals to violent nationalism. Peters amplifies antisemitic conspiracy theories by distorting global initiatives like the Great Reset — an economic reform agenda the World Economic Forum launched in 2020 — into supposed evidence of a Jewish-led plot against non-Jewish populations. He frequently claims such programs are part of a genocidal conspiracy to depopulate the world, enslave Christians and attack American culture, merging these accusations with tenets of the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory that argues Jewish people are orchestrating the demographic decline of the white race.”
You're currently a free subscriber to PREVAIL by Greg Olear.
Comments
Post a Comment