Kash Patel is a grifter who has repeatedly exaggerated and lied to advance his own interests and those of President Trump. He’s exaggerated his own professional experience, provided testimony that a court found not credible, and peddled falsehoods.
Patel has peddled falsehoods for his own personal gain. He initially praised President Trump for his efforts to develop the COVID vaccine. Then he did an about face by casting doubt on the efficacy of the COVID vaccine, and later encouraging people to buy supplements relying on unfounded theories about the danger of vaccines.
Patel provided testimony about January 6th that lacked credibility. He claimed that President Trump authorized deployment of the National Guard on January 6, 2021, which was contradicted by Acting Defense Secretary Miller’s testimony to the House January 6th Committee. The state court judge in Anderson v. Griswold found that Patel was “not a credible witness” and his testimony was “not only illogical… but completely devoid of any evidence in the record.”
Patel has overstated his professional experience and contributions to events on multiple occasions:
- In his Questionnaire, Patel writes that while working for the NSC, he was “responsible for formulating and implementing U.S. counterterrorism policy.”
- However, former Trump-appointed National Security Advisor John Bolton stated that he did not think Patel was qualified and that Patel “demonstrated no policy aptitude at all.”
- In his Questionnaire, Patel writes that while working for the ODNI, he “oversaw all 17 intelligence community agencies and prioritized intelligence collection to focus on hard targets and global threats.”
- However, emails and memos from Patel’s time in office indicate that Patel actually spent large amounts of time and energy trying to declassify politically sensitive documents in order to exonerate former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and advance Patel’s beliefs about “Russiagate.”
- Patel has described the four-page “Nunes Memo,” which he helped write along with other HPSCI staff, as a “rare actual bombshell report.” Patel stated in his book Government Gangsters that the memo was internally known as “the Kash-Gowdy memo,” after himself and then-Representative Trey Gowdy.
- However, his book appears to be the only source for this claim. Although the Trump Justice Department argued that releasing the memo would be “extraordinarily reckless” without an official review and the FBI expressed “grave concerns” about the memo’s accuracy, President Trump supported releasing the memo and House Republicans voted to release the memo to the public in February 2018. Patel has repeated several false claims and insinuations related to the memo and the FBI’s investigation.
- In his Senate Judiciary Questionnaire, Patel writes that he “collaborated on cases tied to the Benghazi attacks.”
- However, on numerous other occasions, Patel has described himself as “leading the prosecution’s efforts at Main Justice in Washington, DC” and as “the Main Justice lead Benghazi prosecutor,” along with other similar descriptions. Former officials in the Justice Department’s National Security Division have said that Patel exaggerated his role in the Justice Department and in the Benghazi case, noting that he did not make prosecutorial decisions and was “one of several line attorneys” supporting the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. According to former colleagues, Patel left the Benghazi team after less than a year following complaints that reached senior Justice Department officials.
U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statement:
“Kash Patel’s repeated exaggerations and misleading statements to advance his own personal and political interests are gravely concerning and reflect poorly on his judgment. From overstating his professional experience to providing unreliable testimony in a court of law, this conduct is not what the American people expect from someone who aspires to be FBI Director.”
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