FBI Director Kash Patel took a combative approach on Monday when grilled about the firestorm of criticism he’s faced over his social media activity in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Hours after Kirk, 31, was fatally shot at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, Patel wrote on X that the “subject for the horrific shooting… is now in custody,” before posting again less than two hours later to say the “subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement.” The suspected gunman, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was not arrested until Thursday evening.
“Could I have worded it a little better in the heat of the moment? Sure,” Patel said during an appearance on Fox & Friends on Monday morning. “But do I regret putting it out? Absolutely not.”
“I was telling the world what the FBI was doing as we were doing [it],” Patel added. “And I’m continuing to do that, and I challenge anyone out there to find a director that has been more transparent and more willing to work the media on high-profile cases, or any case the FBI is handling than we have been under my leadership.”
Patel, a former podcaster, cigar entrepreneur, and T-shirt hawker, has faced intense scrutiny for his handling of the Kirk case. He also asked about reports concerning tensions between him and others involved in the investigation. The New York Times reported that Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, held a fraught online meeting with 200 agents the morning after Kirk’s killing in which they made clear they were facing “intense pressure” to catch the shooter.
The report also said Patel went on a profane rant as he called out subordinates who he claimed had “failed to give him timely information” and that he was “incensed that agents in Salt Lake City waited nearly 12 hours to show him a photo of the suspected killer.” It added that Patel said he would not tolerate any more “Mickey Mouse operations.”
“The local authorities have been fantastic,” Patel said Monday on Fox News, adding that the local sheriff and state police have been “wonderful.”
“To get the information up to me was of the utmost priority,” Patel said. “So I worked with my team to say, ‘Hey, there’s not going to be any delays, we’re not going to do it the way we normally do things.’ So the only thing that people were doing at the FBI was how they knew how to do things—I had to expedite that process, that’s my job.”
Patel claimed he had not been “critical of anyone in particular, I just said: ‘We gotta move faster.’”
“That was my call to make, and if there’s any criticism there, you can put it right here, not the men and women of the FBI.”
Patel added that no one had denied his order for information per se, the photos were just not produced to him “in a timely fashion” that he felt “was appropriate for an investigation of this magnitude.”
“So I came in and I accelerated that process,” Patel said.
At the start of the interview, Patel also spoke about DNA evidence collected from a towel wrapped around a rifle that authorities found discarded in a wooded area that investigators believe was used in the shooting. Patel said that DNA sample, as well as DNA collected from a screwdriver found on the campus rooftop from where the shooter fired, “are positively processed for the suspect in custody.”
He said that the firearm itself is being “processed by ATF laboratories in Maryland” and that he expects the agency to give an update once its processing is complete.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Robinson will be charged Tuesday. Authorities have not yet released a suspected motive for the attack.
Trump’s one-time pick to lead the FBI, former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, will be sworn into a new power-sharing role with Bongino on Monday. Fox News Digital reported on Sunday that President Donald Trump’s allies “have begun to circulate word that contingency plans for Patel’s ouster are forming” and that Bailey has made clear that he would not leave his role as Missouri’s attorney general or drop his hopes of running for state governor to serve as “Patel’s number two.”
“The White House, Bondi, Blanche have no confidence in Kash,” one source told the outlet. “Pam in particular cannot stand him. Blanche either,” the source added, referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, former Trump lawyer Todd Blanche.
White House officials denied any plan to remove Patel from his role, while Trump—who was reportedly unimpressed with Patel’s clash with Bondi over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case—told Fox News Digital over the weekend that he is “very proud of the FBI,” adding: “Kash —and everyone else—they have done a great job.”
