Senate Democrats have obtained a whistleblower report claiming that President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, violated protocol during a hostage rescue mission in October 2020.
The whistleblower letter, obtained by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., claimed that Patel leaked news that two Americans and the remains of a third were being transferred to U.S. custody from Yemen, where they had been held hostage by Houthi rebels. The whistleblower claims Patel leaked news of the trade to the sources hours before the hostages were actually in U.S. custody, potentially endangering the deal.
The protocol of the multi-agency group in charge of the mission was to withhold information about hostage deals until the subjects were both in U.S. custody and their families had been notified, according to the whistleblower.
A transition official pushed back on the report in a statement to the sources on Tuesday, saying Patel has a 'track record of success.' 'Mr. Patel was a public defender, decorated prosecutor, and accomplished national security official that kept Americans safe,' the official said.
In the October 2020 case, the deal went forward without any issues, with the two Americans and the remains of the third being transferred to U.S. custody. In exchange, the U.S. arranged for the release of some 200 Houthi fighters being held prisoner in Saudi Arabia.
Senate Democrats delivered the whistleblower letter on Monday morning to Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Acting Treasury Secretary David Lebryk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the sources reported.
The report comes just days before Patel is set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for an extensive confirmation hearing.
Patel has called for radical changes at the FBI and was a fierce and vocal critic of the bureau’s work as it investigated ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
He held numerous national security roles during the first Trump administration and was the chief investigator in the congressional probe into alleged Trump-Russia collusion, uncovering government surveillance abuse that led to the appointment of two special counsels.
Patel was an integral part of the creation of a memo released by then-Chair Devin Nunes in February 2018, which detailed the DOJ's and FBI’s surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
He’s been a loyal ally to Trump for years, finding common cause over their shared skepticism of government surveillance and the 'deep state' — a catchall used by Trump to refer to unelected members of government bureaucracy.
