The FBI’s deputy director in the first Trump administration, Andrew McCabe said he was left dumbfounded by the decision of the bureau’s current leader, Kash Patel, to visit Utah as authorities hunt for the killer of Charlie Kirk.
“There are many good reasons why you wouldn’t go, if you’re the director, out to the scene of an ongoing post-crisis investigation,” McCabe told CNN Newsnight host Abby Phillip.
“One of the reasons not to do that is because the presence of the director imposes a huge burden on the field office. There’s all kinds of arrangements that have to be made, there’s all kinds of security concerns that arise,” McCabe said.
“Transportation becomes very complicated, and that’s the last thing you want to do to the field office while they’re in the middle of investigating a critical incident,” McCabe added.
“So again, it’s strange to go out there under those circumstances.”
McCabe was fired as FBI deputy director in March 2018, just two days before he was due to retire, by Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions. McCabe had ordered a probe into Trump’s possible obstruction of justice when FBI director James Comey was fired.
Patel visited Utah on Thursday and attended a press conference where law enforcement gave an update on the investigation into the killing of Kirk, who was shot while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
The FBI director, a former prosecutor who helped Republican congressman Devin Nunes undermine the Trump-Russia probe, did not speak at the press conference. He has already received criticism for his handling of the investigation into the shooting of the Turning Point USA founder.
This includes posting misleading updates on social media by telling his 1.8 million X followers that officials had apprehended “the subject of the shooting,” before later declaring that the individual had nothing to do with the attack.
There is widespread frustration that the FBI has so far been unable to apprehend a meaningful suspect in Kirk’s shooting. No motive for the killing has yet been established, and no details about the gunman’s identity have been made public, except for a selection of photos of a male in dark clothing.
McCabe also questioned why Patel did not speak at Thursday’s press conference.
“I’m a bit at a loss to understand what was the purpose of going out there,” McCabe told CNN. “If you’re there, you probably want to make at least very perfunctory comments about appreciating the hard work of the men and women that are doing the investigation, and of course thanking your partners for the sort of access and the relationship that you have.
“I don’t even know how to kind of guess at that at this point.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the FBI for comment.
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