‘When the media gets together with anonymous sources … that just means our mission is the most effective it’s ever been,’ Patel said.
WASHINGTON—Recent media reports suggesting President Donald Trump was considering terminating FBI Director Kash Patel are erroneous and laughable, according to Patel. “It was pretty comical, because the president and I were both discussing law enforcement operations across the country with our team, the attorney general, and other members of the department, and we were made aware that there was reporting that I was being terminated,” Patel told Jan Jekielek, host of “American Thought Leaders,” in an exclusive interview airing on EpochTV at 5 p.m. ET on Nov. 29.
He said Trump laughed at the exchange and prompted the two to stand in front of the Declaration of Independence hanging in the Oval Office for a photograph—which a moment later was shared to social media by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
She dismissed the reporting as categorically false.
“This story is completely made up,” Leavitt wrote on X on Nov. 25. “In fact, when this Fake News published, I was in the Oval Office, where President Trump was meeting with his law enforcement team, including FBI Director Kash Patel.”
Trump later defended Patel when asked whether he was firing the director.
“No, he’s doing a great job, I think,” Trump told reporters on Nov. 25 while traveling on Air Force One.
Patel pointed to a list of FBI accomplishments over the past 10 months as evidence that the bureau is achieving its operational objectives, including the arrest of 30,000 individuals—25,000 of whom allegedly committed violent crimes—the recovery of 6,000 missing children, and the disruption of criminal organizations trafficking fentanyl and other narcotics and harming children.
“I think we are executing the president’s mission wildly successfully in a historic fashion,” Patel said in the interview.
He said the criticism from media sources was proof that his work was having its intended effect.
“When the media gets together with anonymous sources, like they always do, and it gets louder and louder and louder, that just means our mission is the most effective it’s ever been,” Patel said.
A report from MS NOW cited unnamed officials claiming that Trump and other Cabinet members were frustrated with what they described as Patel’s conflicts with administration insiders, private use of a government jet, and protection for his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins.
Patel dismissed the allegations during the interview, saying he is restricted from flying commercial and that all security precautions for his partner are managed by agents in line with historical precedent.
“I think it’s disgusting that an agency head has to even address the fact that their partner’s life is continuously being threatened,” he said. “Unfortunately, there are multiple threats against Alexis’s life that have caused us to properly secure her safety, and that is done independently by career FBI agents. I don’t have any part in that.”
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