Days Before Confirmation Hearing, New Allegations Question Kash Patel’s Judgment as FBI Director
A bureau insider has come forward with new information questioning Kash Patel’s judgment during sensitive hostage rescue missions, CBS News has learned. The whistleblower, who worked with the FBI’s Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, alleges that Patel violated firmly entrenched protocols to keep such operations under wraps until the captives are safely in U.S. hands and their families have been notified.
According to a letter obtained by CBS News, Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote that Patel, while serving on the National Security Council during the first Trump term, “broke protocol regarding hostage rescues by publicly commenting without authorization on the then-in-progress retrieval of two Americans held captive by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen in October 2020.”
The letter states that on October 14, 2020, at 10:55 a.m., the Wall Street Journal published a story in which Patel confirmed that the two American captives and the remains of a third were exchanged for two hundred Houthi fighters who were being held in Saudi Arabia. The news report was published “several hours before the hostages were in the confirmed custody of the United States.” FBI officials involved in the mission were livid over Patel’s leak, which they regarded as reckless and potentially risking tragic results.
Democratic senators sent a letter to Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Acting Treasury Secretary David Lebryk, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asking for all records of communications between Patel and the FBI’s Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell concerning the rescue of the captives, as well as any records reflecting authorization for him to disclose the hostage deal before there was confirmation that the Americans were safely in U.S. hands.
A source close to the confirmation said in response to the allegations, “Mr. Patel was a public defender, decorated prosecutor and accomplished national security official that kept Americans safe. He has a track record of success in every branch of government, from the courtroom to congressional hearing rooms to the situation room. There is no veracity to this anonymous source’s complaints about protocol.”
Alex Gray, former chief of staff for the National Security Council during the first Trump administration, said, “The anonymous allegations in this letter are simply absurd to anyone who has ever actually worked with Kash Patel. In everything he did at the NSC and DoD, Kash put the interests of the American people, and particularly the interests of American hostages and unlawful detainees and their families, first.”
The Democrats plan to highlight another instance where Patel has been criticized for his handling of a sensitive operation aimed at freeing American captives. Two weeks after the Yemen hostage deal, Patel found himself in the middle of another high-risk operation. The kidnappers transported Philip Walton, a 27-year-old American, to Nigeria and demanded a million dollars in ransom. There were also indications that the kidnappers were contemplating turning him over to a terrorist group operating in the region. Patel was accompanying President Trump on a visit to Fort Bragg, the military installation in North Carolina that is home to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. While they were there, Patel received intelligence that Walton would be held at an encampment for several hours, enough time to stage a daring Seal Team 6 raid to rescue the hostage.
Then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper had greenlit the plan, but there were still some final questions that needed to be answered before he could give the go order – primarily whether the Nigerian government had given the U.S. permission to use its air space. According to Esper’s memoir, Patel, who was the senior director for counterterrorism at the time, assured Defense Department officials that the State Department had received the necessary permission from the Nigerians. But Patel’s information was incorrect: the Nigerians had not given their approval. By this time, Air Force planes carrying the Navy SEALs were in the air just a few miles from the Nigerian border. Esper wrote in his memoir, “A Sacred Oath,” he realized the government had to make an agonizing decision. He told the White House they could go forward with the operation and risk having their planes shot down – or abort the mission and miss a crucial opportunity to save Walton.
But Patel has denied Esper’s version of events. In his own book, “Government Gangsters,” Patel portrays Esper as a “deep-state” actor who “always seemed to be subverting the president’s agenda,” including by putting up obstacles to counterterrorism raids in Africa and the Middle East.
Last week, Durbin met with Patel and asked him about Esper’s account of his role in the nearly botched Nigerian raid. Sources said Patel again refuted Esper’s version of events. Durbin did not yet have the whistleblower’s information about the Yemen hostage deal, but he is expected to closely question the FBI nominee about that episode at Thursday’s confirmation hearing.
However, Patel’s answers to those questions, there is no suspense as to how Durbin and his fellow Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote. After his meeting with Patel, Durbin issued a statement saying he will not vote to confirm Patel. “Kash Patel has neither the experience, the temperament, nor the judgment to lead the FBI,” his statement said.
