Federal investigators are agitated as the Trump administration presses the FBI and Justice Department to produce indictments tied to President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, according to a new report.
The Atlantic interviewed more than 40 current and former officials, FBI employees and congressional staffers, and they described FBI Director Kash Patel as desperate to deliver arrests to please the president – with many requests coming straight from the White House under instructions like “this is a push from 47.”
One DOJ official said that this summer, after asking about the department’s manual of rules meant to keep politics out of elections, they were told: “There are no rules. Just make sure Republicans win.”
A DOJ spokesperson said: “That is not, and has never been, Department guidance.”
Patel openly acknowledges that he receives directions from Trump, Stephen Miller and other White House staff, and the White House did not deny that Miller “interacts with all law-enforcement agencies on a regular basis.”
“I’ve personally heard him say, ‘I have to do this for the White House,’” one former FBI official told The Atlantic.
The pressure has so far not produced results. Five months ago, Patel told Fox’s Maria Bartiromo that 2020 election arrests were “coming soon,” but none have materialized. According to the report, Patel has told frustrated staff to “look harder” or “look again.”
The push is also rattling some Republicans.
“It would be an absolute disaster for Republicans in the midterms, especially those in vulnerable races, if Patel sent FBI agents to the polls or seized ballots,” one GOP staffer told the outlet.
Even Trump loyalists are walking away from a push to deliver indictments before the November election. Joe diGenova resigned from overseeing the so-called “grand conspiracy” investigation last month, citing pressure to produce indictments, and Kurt Olsen, a “Stop the Steal” lawyer who later joined the DOJ probe, has also left, along with several prosecutors who reportedly clashed with leadership over demands for charges before the midterms.
This week, FBI co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey, who oversaw election-related investigations, announced his departure. Sources said he often raised legal objections in meetings, although he described that claim as “absolutely false.”
Rank-and-file agents have been seeking outside legal advice about election directives, and many of them expressed dread about Election Day.
“I’m either gonna be sick that day or they are going to have to fire me,” one agent said.
This summer, about 260 FBI employees were ordered to drop other work for two weeks to comb through ballot data seized in Fulton County, Georgia. Two analysts who questioned the process were escorted out, but the effort ultimately turned up nothing substantive.
Patel also refused under oath last month to rule out stationing FBI staff at polling sites. “I don’t know that we can’t legally do it,” he told Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). Federal law has barred armed federal agents at the polls since after the Civil War.
An FBI spokesperson disputed the reporting and cited a “500 percent increase in election integrity related investigations and arrests just this year alone.” A White House spokesperson said “the claim that the White House dictates who the Department investigates or charges is false.”
Patel didn’t answer The Atlantic’s 17 detailed questions. Instead, he replied: “I’m still looking for my gold-plated jet ski in the English Channel; you all know where it is. Free ride if you help me find it.”
Patel has sued The Atlantic for $250 million over earlier reporting about his conduct as director.
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