FBI Director Kash Patel lost it on a Democratic lawmaker who teased him over a leaked report that said some of his own agents view him as “in over his head” and “insecure.”
Patel, 45, appears to have unraveled after the 115-page “pulse check” was released, containing embarrassing details from 24 current and former FBI sources who described his first six months in the role as “dismal” and warned that the bureau was “all f—ed up.”
The report also detailed an incident in which Patel is said to have refused to get off a plane in Utah until he was provided with an FBI raid jacket. Agents who were in the middle of the Charlie Kirk murder investigation were forced to find him a proper jacket, ultimately providing him with a women’s medium-sized raid jacket that they then had to dress up with patches he requested, according to the report.
Patel has been roundly ridiculed over the report, including by Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, also 45, who posted on X: “I don’t mind that FBI Director Kash Patel had to wear a women’s (size medium) jacket to cosplay as someone in charge. I just wish he’d focus on stopping the rampant domestic terrorism happening on his watch.”
Patel apparently decided that humor was the best way to respond, replying that he had actually been “looking for a Youth Large,” before then going on the offensive.
He said domestic-terror arrests were “UP 30% this year,” claiming that achievement was “impressive, considering I spent zero days dating a Chinese spy named Fang Fang.” He added, “Where should I send your women’s medium for date night?”
Patel’s “Chinese spy” reference is a long-running right-wing attack against Swalwell tied to Christine Fang, also known as “Fang Fang,” a woman who volunteered on Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign before it was publicly revealed in 2020 that she was a suspected Chinese spy.
U.S. officials said they found no evidence she obtained any classified information from Swalwell, who cut contact with her after an FBI briefing in 2015.
The House Ethics Committee carried out a two-year investigation into the matter and closed it in May 2023 without taking any action.
The FBI assessment that got Patel hot under the collar also slams Deputy Director Dan Bongino, 51, as “something of a clown,” and says the pair are too fixated on social media.
The document’s authors have said they never intended to attack FBI leadership but that the feedback they received from inside the agency ended up being mostly negative. The assessment was handed to New York Post columnist Miranda Devine—a choice some view as designed to inflict maximum damage on Patel and Bongino.
Bongino appeared to allude to the leak on X, claiming opponents “will do anything” to undo FBI reforms.
The Daily Beast has contacted the FBI and Rep. Eric Swalwell for comment.
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