‘We Regret This Error’: MS NOW’s Ken Dilanian Gives a Full Mea Culpa For Falsely Reporting Kash Patel Landed in Russia

Two hours and ten minutes after he reported it, MS NOW correspondent Ken Dilanian had to go back on the air and admit he was wrong when he falsely reported FBI Director Kash Patel had landed in Russia earlier on Wednesday.

It turns out, Patel was at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia — about 4,600 miles away from St. Petersburg. The FBI slammed Dilanian shortly after his initial report at 11:44 a.m. ET, saying his sources clearly knew “NOTHING!”

Dilanian then joined Alicia Menendez’s show at 1:54 p.m. ET to cop to getting the report dead wrong.

“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,” Dilanian said. “We’ve since learned that Patel did not, in fact, land in Russia today and remains in the U.S.”

He continued:

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.

His mea culpa followed MS NOW making a big deal out of his initial fake scoop, with host Peter Alexander cutting into his show to announce the supposed breaking news.

“MS NOW has learned that Patel has landed in Russia for a meeting scheduled to take place there. That’s according to two people familiar with the matter,” Alexander announced.

He then brought on Dilanian to discuss the bogus trip.

“We don’t know what Kash Patel’s doing in Russia, and that’s one of the things concerning our FBI sources,” Dilanian said.

Those sources were apparently unaware Patel was in Virginia.

Watch above.

Jason Cohen contributed to this story.

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