FBI Director Kash Patel called on MS NOW to apologize to the agency after an erroneous report that he had landed in Russia.
Citing two unnamed sources, the network’s Ken Dilanian reported during Peter Alexander’s show in the 11 a.m. ET hour that Patel had landed in the country for a meeting.
The FBI’s Rapid Response account pushed back, posting video of Patel at Liberty University in Virginia.
Two hours later, during Alicia Menendez’s show in the 1 p.m. ET hour, Dilanian appeared on air again to say that he was correcting the report.
“We’ve since learned that Patel did not, in fact, land in Russia today and remains in the U.S. The FBI did not answer our questions when we asked them about it,” he said.
Dilanian noted that there already had been reports that a Patel meeting in Russia was planned. Those reports raised “serious concerns, including among Democratic lawmakers who had urged Patel to call off the meeting which, according to published reports, was supposed to be happening today. But we do know now that he has not already landed in Russia, as we reported earlier. The timing of any potential trip remains unclear. Again, we regret this error, and we are transparent about when we make errors.”
Patel posted on X that MS NOW owes “an apology to this FBI, the men and women of law enforcement, and to the American people.” But he also focused on a separate MS NOW report that the FBI under his leadership had brought thousands fewer criminal cases than previous administration, despite Patel’s claims.
Dilanian defended that reporting, writing on X, “There has been a lot of commentary about this story. But no one at the FBI or anywhere else has disputed the DOJ data showing FBI criminal referrals down 15%. That’s thousands fewer criminal cases under @FBIDirectorKash, @dbongino and @FBIDDRaia than during the same period in the Biden Administration.”
An MS NOW spokesperson referred to Dilanian’s on air correction.
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