Kash Patel and Conspiracy Theories

Patel Aided In Spreading Conspiracy Theories About Joe Biden

Patel Spread Conspiracy Theories About Joe Biden

Patel Helped To Spread Conspiracy Theories About Biden. According to CNN, “The House impeachment inquiry uncovered evidence connecting Patel, who was then working as an aide to Nunes, to the diplomatic back channel led by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, and the efforts to spread conspiracy theories about Joe Biden and coerce Ukraine into announcing an investigation of the former vice president.” [CNN, 11/24/20]

Patel Paid And Promoted Witnesses Who Supported False Conspiracy Theories About Governmental Bias Against Trump

In A Committee To Investigate Alleged Bias Against Trump, Patel Was Found To Be Supporting Witnesses In Pursuing Their Fabricated Allegations 

Three Witnesses Testified About Alleged Weaponization Of The Federal Government Against Trump. According to the New York Times, “But the first three witnesses to testify privately before the new Republican-led House committee investigating the “weaponization” of the federal government have offered little firsthand knowledge of any wrongdoing or violation of the law, according to Democrats on the panel who have listened to their accounts. Instead, the trio appears to be a group of aggrieved former F.B.I. officials who have trafficked in right-wing conspiracy theories, including about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, and received financial support from a top ally of former President Donald J. Trump.” [New York Times, 3/2/23]

Committee Democrats Concluded That Patel Encouraged The Three Witnesses To Pursue Their “Meritless Claims” And Used Them For His Personal Vendettas. According to the New York Times, “’Based on this evidence, committee Democrats conclude that there is a strong likelihood that Kash Patel is encouraging the witnesses to continue pursuing their meritless claims, and in fact is using them to help propel his vendetta against the F.B.I., Justice Department, and Biden administration on behalf of himself and President Trump,’ the report says.” [New York Times, 3/2/23]

Patel Provided Financial And Career Support To Two Major Witnesses In The Committee Inquiry

Two Of The Witnesses Received Financial Support From Patel. According to the New York Times, “Mr. O’Boyle and Mr. Friend both testified that they had received financial support from Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist and former high-ranking official in the former president’s administration. Mr. Friend said Mr. Patel sent him $5,000 almost immediately after they connected in November 2022 and that Mr. Patel has helped to promote Mr. Friend’s forthcoming book on social media.” [New York Times, 3/2/23]

Patel Helped One Witness Find His Next Job. According to the New York Times, “It also details the ties between Mr. Trump’s inner circle and the witnesses. For instance, Mr. Patel found Mr. Friend his next job, working as a fellow on domestic intelligence and security services with the Center for Renewing America, which is run by Russ Vought. The center is affiliated with the Conservative Partnership Institute, which is run by Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s former chief of staff, and former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina.” [New York Times, 3/2/23]

Patel’s Non-Profit “Fight With Kash” Provided Thousands Of Dollars To The False Witnesses

Patel’s Non-Profit “Fight With Kash” Provided Thousands Of Dollars To The False Witnesses. According to ABC, “Over the past year, one of Donald Trump’s staunchest loyalists, a rising star on the right named Kash Patel, has been soliciting donations and raising money for ‘Fight With Kash,’ a charity he launched after leaving the Trump administration two years ago. The charity, which in July of last year became a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, made national headlines this past week with revelations that it provided thousands of dollars to at least two so-called ‘FBI whistleblowers’ who are helping House Republicans push disputed claims of politically-fueled corruption inside the Justice Department.” [ABC, 3/8/23]

Patel Penned An Op-Ed Accusing Intelligence Agencies Of Anti-Trump Bias

Patel Referred To The Russian Interference Investigation “A Russian Hoax”

Patel Called The Russian Interference Investigation A “Russian Hoax.” According to Patel via Fox News, “We still have a lot to learn, including about the role of the CIA and its former director Gina Haspel in launching the Russia Hoax behind the scenes.  While I successfully surmounted obstacles established by ‘obstruction twins’ FBI Director Chris Wray and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to uncover that (for example) high-ranking DOJ official Bruce Ohr was married to dossier researcher Nellie, acted as an FBI source cutout, just so they can maintain the influx of intel they knew to be false. So much has yet to be revealed to the American public, and it must be with haste.” [Patel op-ed via Fox News, 11/4/22]

Patel Claimed That The FBI Illegally Surveilled Trump And Used Counterintelligence Efforts To Benefit Democrats

Patel Said That The FBI Lied To A Federal Court To “Illegally Surveil President Donald Trump And His Campaign.” According to Patel via Fox News, “You wouldn’t know it from reading the headlines, but Special Counsel John Durham has demonstrated in exacting detail what former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and I first uncovered five years ago: the Steele Dossier was not just a Clinton-concocted and Democrat-funded scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election. It was an unlawful effort eagerly coordinated by the top brass of the FBI, culminated in the presentation of known lies to a federal court to illegally surveil President Donald Trump and his campaign. Only now are we learning just how deep the corruption ran, all the way through the intelligence community.” [Patel op-ed via Fox News, 11/4/22]

Patel Claimed That The FBI Rigged The 2020 Election By Withholding Information About Hunter Biden

Patel Claimed That The FBI Rigged The 2020 Election By Withholding “Damning Information About Hunter Biden.” According to Patel via Fox News, “If that weren’t enough, the FBI brazenly rigged the 2020 election and withheld from Congress damning information about Hunter Biden’s corrupt foreign business dealings by directing Facebook to censor any reporting about Hunter’s laptop, falsely calling it ‘Russian disinformation,’ a damned lie propagated in a letter signed by more than 50 former senior intelligence community officials. These officials included former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden, who more recently breezily suggested that Trump deserves the death penalty, and he was glad to knowingly participate in a fraud to keep Trump out of office.” [Patel op-ed via Fox News, 11/4/22]

Patel Accused The FBI Of Unjustly Attacking Right-Wing Activists And Trump Supporters

Patel Accused The FBI Of Abusing Civil Liberties By Targeting “Parents Who Spoke Out Against Woke Education Policies,” And Other Trump Supporters. According to Patel via Fox News, “Amazingly, the FBI’s abuses of Americans’ civil liberties extend beyond the Russia collusion hoax and counterintelligence matters to domestic ‘counterterrorism’ investigations. Among other outrages, the FBI has targeted parents who spoke out against woke education policies at local school board meetings, smeared Trump supporters as ‘domestic extremists,’ and arrested numerous pro-life activists (including a father of seven) on trumped-up federal charges.” [Patel op-ed via Fox News, 11/4/22]

Kash Patel and Classified Documents

Patel Wanted To Release Classified Documents And Was Involved In Trump’s Discussions Of Classified Documents 

Patel Wanted To Release Classified Documents From The National Archives Weeks Before The Raid On Mar-A-Lago

Patel Claimed That Trump Wanted To Declassify Troves Of Documents, But White House Counsel Instead Delivered Them To The National Archives. According to ABC, “Patel, who under Trump had been the chief of staff for the acting defense secretary, claimed in a string of interviews that Trump had declassified a trove of ‘Russiagate documents’ in the final days of his administration. But Patel claimed Trump’s White House counsel had blocked the release of those documents, and instead had them delivered to the National Archives.” [ABC, 8/17/22]

Patel Claimed That He Was Going To Retrieve The Documents From The National Archives And Publish Them. According to ABC, “’I’ve never told anyone this because it just happened,’ Patel said in an interview on a pro-Trump podcast on June 22. ‘I’m going to identify every single document that they blocked from being declassified at the National Archives, and we’re going to start putting that information out next week.’ Patel did not provide a clear explanation of how he would legally or practically obtain the documents.” [ABC, 8/17/22]

Patel Claimed That Trump Asked Him To Go Retrieve Classified Documents From The National Archives. According to ABC, “The day before he left office, Trump authorized the declassification of a set of documents related to the Russia probe. The memorandum, released in January 2021, acknowledged that ‘portions of the documents in the binder have remained classified and have not been released to the Congress or the public.’ So according to Patel, Trump asked him to work on retrieving the classified documents from the National Archives and then release them to the public. ‘President Trump was like, ‘Who knows those documents better than anyone?’ And I was like, ‘If you want me to go, I’ll go,’’ Patel said.” [ABC, 8/17/22]

Patel Claimed To Have Knowledge Of The Classified Documents At Mar-A-Lago

Patel Claimed That He Was Present When Trump Declassified Documents. According to the Associated Press, “Patel is presumably of interest to investigators because of his claims, including in a May interview with Breitbart News, that he was present as Trump declassified material even though no changes had been made to classification markings on the documents. In that interview, Patel said, Trump ‘declassified whole sets of materials in anticipation of leaving government that he thought the American public should have the right to read themselves.’” [Associated Press, 11/4/22]

Patel Claimed That Trump Kept Documents Related To “Russiagate,” The Ukraine Impeachment Matter, And Matters Of National Security. According to the Washington Post, “Within days of Trump and his lawyers learning the FBI had begun a criminal investigation this spring, Patel offered right-wing media outlets what amounted to a public explanation for why Trump would still have so many sensitive government secrets. ‘It’s information that Trump felt spoke to matters regarding everything from Russiagate to the Ukraine impeachment fiasco to major national security matters of great public importance,’ Patel said in a Breitbart interview on May 5.” [Washington Post, 11/3/22]