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FBI Director Kash Patel vowed to restore “accountability and transparency” to the bureau and said the case against former FBI Director James Comey is “far from over” during an appearance on “My View with Lara Trump” on Saturday.
Trump noted that prior to becoming FBI director, Patel was “very critical” of the actions taken by the previous administration, specifically the weaponization of the agency for political purposes. She asked the FBI chief what he’d already done, and what else he could be doing, to encourage the American people to trust the FBI again.
“In terms of trust, coming back to Russiagate, where I was the lead investigator on Capitol Hill, exposing the FISA abuse, the weaponization, the FBI lies to a secret court, to illegally and unlawfully surveil their political opponent,” Patel replied. “Yes, that happened with information they basically made up from overseas. So the way that we ensure public trust is to make sure that it never happens again. That’s step one.”
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FBI Director Kash Patel is seen during a news conference following the shooting of WV National Guardsmen in Washington. (Andrew Leyden/Getty Images)
According to Patel, step two in the agency’s plan to restore trust is to usher in “accountability and transparency” through increased congressional oversight and investigations into corruption.
“So what we’re doing, especially with our deep knowledge of what happened in Russiagate, is two things on a parallel track. Congress, oversight. I’m committed and wed to congressional oversight,” he said. “My predecessors turned over — Comey 3,000 pages to Congress in his three years and change, and Chris Wray turned over 13,000 in his almost seven years. In my nine months, we’ve turned over 40,000 pages of material to Congress, not just Russiagate, Arctic Frost, but so many other things that they’re interested in.”
The FBI chief attested that there were secret rooms discovered at the FBI’s headquarters that were “hidden away from the map” of the building, which nobody had access to.
“And once we got into those rooms, we found more information related to the Russiagate hoax from prior FBI leadership. Information that was in burn bags that they wanted to have destroyed, but for whatever reason, no one ever got around to it, or they thought we would just never find it,” he recalled.
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As for investigating these alleged violations, Patel told Trump that two separate squads have been assembled to investigate Russiagate and the Biden-era Arctic Frost probe involving President Donald Trump and his allies.
“We’re using a grand jury process, and we are issuing, I think we’re up to like 75 or 100 subpoenas already for witnesses. That’s what you target first. We also have targets for our investigation, people we think committed acts of criminal conduct,” he said. “And this, in my opinion, is why the media is going so hog wild over the Comey prosecution, right? Notice how they’re not attacking the evidence. They’re just saying, ‘Oh, so-and-so was improperly appointed.’ That to me shows me we’re over the target.”
The J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building is seen on June 9, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Brandon, File/AP Photo)
Keeping with the topic, Trump asked Patel what could be expected to come from these ongoing investigations.
“What I try to remind the American public of is the people that built this weaponization of justice and intelligence and law enforcement and put in this politicization, they built this disease temple. It took them like 10 years. We’ve been in the seat nine months, and we’ve already ripped open the band-aid and showed the world how they illegally surveilled on members of Congress, senators and House members, and staffers like myself on top of Russiagate,” he said.
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Patel noted that since the agency began exposing these alleged crimes, those involved “in the weaponization of justice are trying to cover it up by dousing water” on the agency’s investigations.
Last week, senior Trump officials, including Patel, reiterated their plans to explore “all options” to proceed with criminal charges against Comey after a judge previously dismissed his case on the grounds that the interim U.S. attorney tasked with prosecuting the case had been unlawfully appointed.
Former FBI Director James Comey testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee about his interactions with President Donald Trump and the Russia investigation on June 8, 2017, in Washington, D.C. (Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed last month to “immediately appeal” the judge’s ruling, which also rendered invalid a separate case brought by the same prosecutor against New York Attorney General Letitia James.
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In the interim, Patel said the FBI and Justice Department are exploring other options to keep Comey’s case alive.
Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.
