Kash Patel, stalwart-MAGA agitator and Trump’s presumed nominee for FBI director, is exposed this week for a series of lies and exaggerations about his role in prosecuting the Benghazi probe—in addition to his “work” at The Justice Department more broadly.
The New York Times and Mother Jones both run stories describing how Patel, in pushing his book, “Government Gangsters,” inflated his “leadership” work at Main Justice. From NYT:
‘I was leading the prosecution’s efforts at Main Justice in Washington, DC,’ Patel wrote.
Several FBI and Justice Department officials who worked the Benghazi case say this description is an exaggeration. Asked about Patel’s characterization, a former FBI special agent who was on that investigation for years exclaimed, ‘Oh my god, no. Not on that case. Not on Benghazi.’
Legal analyst Marcy Wheeler, blogging at Emptywheel.net, did an excellent write-up about Patel’s sketchy claims—and added some context of her own. It’s not the first time political operatives padded their CVs, and it certainly won’t be the last:
In any case, none of this will prevent Kash from being confirmed. Like Kash, John Ratcliffe fluffed his counterterrorism experience, in Ratcliffe’s case, to get elected. That led Trump to ditch his nomination a first time, but not in 2020 when he was confirmed on a largely partyline vote; the second vote was successful in significant part because then Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, who was being babysat by Kash, was such a shitshow that Ratcliffe was a less-awful alternative.
Trump going back to Ratcliffe for a second “bite at the apple” could be instructive for the next 4 years, as Trump tries (and possibly fails) to install his lackeys. He could easily re-nominate toxic allies again down the line if they fail to garner support the first time.
But there’s another, perhaps more-important series of lies, as Wheeler notes, that could come up in Patel’s confirmation hearings—the details of which could come out when Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report is released. “Kash Patel has been absolutely central to Trump’s efforts to personalize intelligence obtained by US officials,” Wheeler writes. “And there is abundant reason to believe he lied about that, at least publicly, when he claimed, in May 2022, that Trump had declassified all the documents found at Mar-a-Lago.”
So if and when confirmation hearings begin for some of Donald Trump’s most-notorious operatives in key positions, it’s an open question which series of Patel’s mischaracterizations will matter most. From Wheeler:
Patel was a key player in Trump’s effort to take home classified documents and put them to his own personal use. That, too, is unlikely to give Republican Senators pause before putting him in charge of FBI’s signals collection (often with NSA involvement) and informant programs. But it is likely to be far more important than fluffing his resumé going forward.
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