Kash Patel derails yet another shooting investigation
FBI Director Kash Patel is currently in the lead in a contest to determine which Trump administration official is the most incompetent, after he botched yet another shooting investigation.
Patel, who somehow still has a job atop the FBI despite being unfit and unable to carry out the duties, had announced that his agents had helped capture a “person of interest” in the Brown University shooting that killed two students and injured nine more on Saturday, describing the process agents use to find the suspect and capture him.
“This FBI will continue an all out 24/7 campaign until justice is fully served,” Patel wrote in the post on X.
Yet early Monday morning, the suspect—whose name had been leaked to the media and his image plastered all across the internet to live forever—had been released from custody as law enforcement officers said the investigation is now leading them in a different direction.
The Providence, Rhode Island, chief of police went on to blame the FBI for the embarrassing screwup.
“It was actually picked up by the FBI … and they ended up coming and located this individual of interest,” Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar L. Perez Jr. said during a press conference, adding that after detaining the person they, “didn’t have enough, obviously, to be able to prosecute anybody.”
This is the second major shooting investigation that Patel has botched.
When right-wing activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a college in Utah, Patel had said that a suspect was in custody, only to have to announce later that that suspect had been released.
Patel also raised alarm bells in November, when he announced that the FBI had foiled a “potential” terror plot in Detroit, even though the FBI was still working to determine if there actually was an attack being planned. But it turns out, the “plot” had picked up teenagers who were playing video games.
Patel’s obsession with posting on social media to make himself look cool has not only caused embarrassing and potentially dangerous mistakes, but it’s led FBI officials to privately mock Patel behind his back and call him unfit for the important job he holds.
A 115-page report released earlier this month found that agents said Patel had turned the agency into a “circus,” and that his fixation with making himself look good has led to him taking credit for things he deserved no credit for.
Related | FBI is a ‘circus’ under Kash Patel, says damning report
These fumbles come as Patel and President Donald Trump are gutting the FBI, forcing out longtime agents because Trump is mad that many of them worked on investigations of the hundreds of insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Agents are also being pulled off serious work in order to help Trump carry out his deportation agenda—which is now clearly making us less safe.
Of course, Trump is not blameless in the decline of the FBI.
However, after the botched Kirk investigation, reports said that Trump was growing tired of Patel’s blunders and was making plans to replace him.
After now bungling the Brown University investigation, we’ll see if Trump follows through.
