FBI Hits Back Hard At MS NOW Falsely Reporting Kash Patel Is In Russia: They Know ‘NOTHING!’
The FBI hit back hard at MS NOW over a false report about FBI Director Kash Patel visiting Russia on Wednesday — when he was actually at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
MS NOW justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian dropped the reporting about Patel’s supposed whereabouts on Wednesday afternoon with Peter Alexander on State of Play. He later issued a correction approximately two hours later with host Alicia Menendez.
Dilanian said Patel’s whereabouts were confirmed by two sources.
Left: MS Now reports two sources familiar say Kash Patel just landed in Russia,” the FBI Rapid Response account posted to X in response to Dilanian’s report. “Right: Here’s where Kash Patel actually is… Liberty U, doing a law enforcement appreciation event. MS Now’s “sources” are ‘familiar’ with NOTHING!”
They also included footage of Patel taking part in the Liberty U roundtable.
Patel also hit MS NOW and demanded they offer an apology to the FBI.
“They owe an apology to this FBI, the men and women of law enforcement, and to the American people,” Patel wrote on X.
“We don’t know what Kash Patel is doing in Russia. And that’s one of the things that’s concerning our FBI sources. They don’t know either. The FBI is not saying anything about this. I just I asked them for comment on our reporting. They have not gotten back to me,” Dilanian initially told Alexander, noting the last FBI director to visit Russia was Robert Mueller in 2013.
Dilanian later issued a correction and said he regretted the error.
He told Menendez:
Alicia, I want to correct reporting from earlier today, I reported that two sources had told us that FBI director Kash Patel had landed in Russia for a planned trip that had been reported about recently. We’ve since learned that Patel did not, in fact, land in Russia today and remains in the U.S. The FBI did not answer our questions when we asked them about it.
The news of this planned meeting had raised serious concerns, including among some Democratic lawmakers who had urged Patel to call off the meeting, which, according to published reports, was supposed to be happening today. But we do know now that he has not already landed in Russia, as we reported earlier. The timing of any potential trip remains unclear. Again, we regret this error and we are transparent about when we make errors. Back to you.
According to recent reports, Patel is planning a trip to Russia, and the plan has sparked alarm within the FBI.
As of Wednesday, however, the FBI director remains a few thousand miles outside Russia.
MS NOW already has a tense relationship to the administration. They, along with CNN and Politico, are now suing after their reporters were denied White House access. A federal judge has since blocked that ban from Trump, which he said was because all three outlets were printing “fake news” about him.
Alexis Wilkins, who is engaged to Patel, is also suing MS NOW, accusing them of using “sham” sources to push “reckless false allegations.” Dilanian is named as one of the defendants in that suit.
Watch above via MS NOW.
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