FBI Director Kash Patel took a break from his busy schedule of hanging out in Las Vegas instead of actually running the FBI, to go on Fox News last night to rant a bit about James Comey. After Comey posted his beachside “8647” insta, Patel quickly took to social media — where all professional law enforcement vents about its investigation priorities — to pretend that “86,” a century old term for bouncing unruly customers or canceling food orders, actually amounted to an assassination threat directed at Donald Trump.
This was, to use the technical term, fucking stupid. Though against all odds, it was not nearly as stupid as Patel’s next move. Per the Daily Beast:
“Do you know how many copycats we’ve had to investigate as a result of that beachside venture from a former director?” he asked Baier. “Do you know how many agents I’ve had to take offline from chasing down child sex predators, fentanyl traffickers, terrorists?”
Hopefully some career law enforcement professional within the FBI intervened to make sure the answer to both questions is close to zero.
First of all, since threats to the president are the jurisdiction of the Secret Service — something Patel publicly acknowledged at the time — why the hell is he pulling agents off ANYTHING to run down a soccer mom who took a picture of her bottomless mimosa brunch bill having tipped to make sure the total was 8647?
Also, assuming arguendo that he had a single fucking reason to assign any agents at all to these investigations, the FBI has so, so, so many more agents to draw from. The administration has already stopped prosecuting foreign bribery cases… use those folks!!! There’s a bevy of financial crimes that the FBI investigates that will inevitably be dropped once the target buys $200 million in TRUMP coin. Tell Fox Mulder to drop the Sasquatch investigation for a week to send on this somehow less believable snipe hunt.
And because Patel is so out of touch with classic slang that he doesn’t understand “86,” we’ll explain here that a snipe hunt is where you task someone to spend an inordinate amount of time chasing nothing.
While we’re on the subject of reassigning agents from other priorities, his deputy spent yesterday explaining that the FBI is going to spend a bunch of resources chasing down COVID conspiracies. Good to know that while child sex predators and terrorists may not be as important as Comey’s instagram, but the Bureau is still laser-focused on COVID conspiracy theories.
Finally, even if he did have a reason to assign resources to this tripe and the agents he pulled off other chores couldn’t be limited to financial probes, the Director of the FBI should absolutely positively under no circumstances be TELLING CRIMINALS HOW HE’S ALLOCATING RESOURCES.
Which is, really, the most galling part of this. I’m deeply skeptical that the FBI actually compromised much of its mission to pursue this nonsense. But the Director is going on TV broadcasting that he’s willing to sideline child abusers and terrorists over people mocking Trump online. And even if that’s all puffery, it’s still a big deal because the Director of the FBI shouldn’t be going around telling everyone that the FBI is a zero-sum organization incapable of chasing down a terrorist any time someone posts something questionable about Trump… which, again, is the Secret Service’s job anyway. Patel could’ve just said, “we investigated copycats” without suggesting that Facebook jokes have pushed the FBI to its limit. Ideally, the Director of the FBI should be projecting to the world that they’re embedded in every Elf on the Shelf around the country whether they are or not.
He also indirectly trashes the Secret Service in this, because he’s implicitly saying that the Secret Service is too understaffed to chase down the supposed threats, thus requiring the FBI to jump in.
But Patel isn’t so much interested in telling criminals that the FBI is on to them, he wants to make sure Trump hears that people posting social media goofs about him are a lower priority than terrorists. Because general order number 1 in this administration is that Trump is more important than everything else. That the Director of the FBI is willing to undermine the mission of his own agency just so he can tell his boss this through cable news doesn’t bode well.
Kash Patel Rages at James Comey Over Cryptic Trump Post [Daily Beast]
Earlier: James Comey Enjoys Long Walks On The Beach… So MAGA Gonna Send Him To El Salvador Prison Camp
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
The post Kash Patel Says He’s Prioritizing Social Media Mocking Trump Over ‘Child Sex Predators, Fentanyl Traffickers, Terrorists’ appeared first on Above the Law.
FBI Director Kash Patel took a break from his busy schedule of hanging out in Las Vegas instead of actually running the FBI, to go on Fox News last night to rant a bit about James Comey. After Comey posted his beachside “8647” insta, Patel quickly took to social media — where all professional law enforcement vents about its investigation priorities — to pretend that “86,” a century old term for bouncing unruly customers or canceling food orders, actually amounted to an assassination threat directed at Donald Trump.
This was, to use the technical term, fucking stupid. Though against all odds, it was not nearly as stupid as Patel’s next move. Per the Daily Beast:
“Do you know how many copycats we’ve had to investigate as a result of that beachside venture from a former director?” he asked Baier. “Do you know how many agents I’ve had to take offline from chasing down child sex predators, fentanyl traffickers, terrorists?”
Hopefully some career law enforcement professional within the FBI intervened to make sure the answer to both questions is close to zero.
First of all, since threats to the president are the jurisdiction of the Secret Service — something Patel publicly acknowledged at the time — why the hell is he pulling agents off ANYTHING to run down a soccer mom who took a picture of her bottomless mimosa brunch bill having tipped to make sure the total was 8647?
Also, assuming arguendo that he had a single fucking reason to assign any agents at all to these investigations, the FBI has so, so, so many more agents to draw from. The administration has already stopped prosecuting foreign bribery cases… use those folks!!! There’s a bevy of financial crimes that the FBI investigates that will inevitably be dropped once the target buys $200 million in TRUMP coin. Tell Fox Mulder to drop the Sasquatch investigation for a week to send on this somehow less believable snipe hunt.
And because Patel is so out of touch with classic slang that he doesn’t understand “86,” we’ll explain here that a snipe hunt is where you task someone to spend an inordinate amount of time chasing nothing.
While we’re on the subject of reassigning agents from other priorities, his deputy spent yesterday explaining that the FBI is going to spend a bunch of resources chasing down COVID conspiracies. Good to know that while child sex predators and terrorists may not be as important as Comey’s instagram, but the Bureau is still laser-focused on COVID conspiracy theories.
Finally, even if he did have a reason to assign resources to this tripe and the agents he pulled off other chores couldn’t be limited to financial probes, the Director of the FBI should absolutely positively under no circumstances be TELLING CRIMINALS HOW HE’S ALLOCATING RESOURCES.
Which is, really, the most galling part of this. I’m deeply skeptical that the FBI actually compromised much of its mission to pursue this nonsense. But the Director is going on TV broadcasting that he’s willing to sideline child abusers and terrorists over people mocking Trump online. And even if that’s all puffery, it’s still a big deal because the Director of the FBI shouldn’t be going around telling everyone that the FBI is a zero-sum organization incapable of chasing down a terrorist any time someone posts something questionable about Trump… which, again, is the Secret Service’s job anyway. Patel could’ve just said, “we investigated copycats” without suggesting that Facebook jokes have pushed the FBI to its limit. Ideally, the Director of the FBI should be projecting to the world that they’re embedded in every Elf on the Shelf around the country whether they are or not.
He also indirectly trashes the Secret Service in this, because he’s implicitly saying that the Secret Service is too understaffed to chase down the supposed threats, thus requiring the FBI to jump in.
But Patel isn’t so much interested in telling criminals that the FBI is on to them, he wants to make sure Trump hears that people posting social media goofs about him are a lower priority than terrorists. Because general order number 1 in this administration is that Trump is more important than everything else. That the Director of the FBI is willing to undermine the mission of his own agency just so he can tell his boss this through cable news doesn’t bode well.
Kash Patel Rages at James Comey Over Cryptic Trump Post [Daily Beast]
Earlier: James Comey Enjoys Long Walks On The Beach… So MAGA Gonna Send Him To El Salvador Prison Camp
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
