FBI Director Kash Patel demands apologies over retracted report

FBI Director Kash Patel has demanded “three apologies” from the US network MS NOW following a retracted report that falsely claimed he had landed in Russia. Patel clarified that on the date in question, he was actually in Lynchburg, Virginia, attending an event at Liberty University alongside Republican Congressman John McGuire.

The network's correspondent, Ken Dilanian, corrected the report on air approximately two hours after its initial publication, citing anonymous sources. In response to the error, an FBI official stated that the bureau is “always hunting leakers” and suggested that the two sources involved would likely be identified.

The controversy also involves a dispute over crime statistics. MS NOW published an analysis suggesting that Patel’s claims of a 90 per cent rise in violent crime arrests were inflated. Patel and FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia have defended the data, with Raia stating that the headline was an “insult to law enforcement.”