Kash Patel’s contentious leadership of the FBI
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 September 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
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Summary
FBI Director Kash Patel had a tough week.
He’d already been slated to appear before both the House and Senate judiciary committees – hearings at which he was sure to be peppered with questions about his leadership of the FBI, his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein saga, and allegations that the FBI had fired people over their political preferences.
But his handling of the FBI investigation into the killing of Charlie Kirk has led even some in the conservative base to question his competence.
Today on “Post Reports,” Jeremy Roebuck takes us through how Patel handled himself in the week’s congressional hearings – which more than once erupted into shouting matches. And he shares his reporting on how Patel came to be President Donald Trump’s pick to head the FBI in the first place.
Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy, with help from Sabby Robinson. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sean Carter. Thank you to Ted Muldoon and James Martinez.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When Charlie Kirk was shot and killed last week, one federal agency took center stage in the |
| 0:07.8 | manhunt for his killer, the FBI. What the FBI does is not just locate and find suspects, |
| 0:14.5 | but we also participate in eliminating subjects. And what we had at the time was a subject in custody |
| 0:20.7 | in relation to this |
| 0:21.8 | investigation. That's Cash Patel in a Senate judiciary hearing this week. Patel is the director of the |
| 0:27.6 | FBI, and he was talking to Democratic Senator Peter Welch from Vermont. The senator called out how in |
| 0:33.0 | the hours after the shooting, Patel publicly shared that they had someone in custody who turned out not to be Kirk Shooter. |
| 0:39.5 | In all candor, I don't quite get that because if we have our man, that would suggest to the public that everybody can rest and relax and not then continue to provide information to local law enforcement and to you. |
| 0:52.8 | So that was a mistake. |
| 0:54.7 | I don't see it as a mistake. |
| 0:56.0 | I see it as something working with the public to identify that there was a subject in custody. |
| 1:00.7 | So if you put out a statement that says we've got our man. |
| 1:04.1 | This was the first of two contentious hearings that Patel had in Congress this week. |
| 1:08.4 | Throughout both, Patel defended himself over his handling of the |
| 1:11.1 | Kirk investigation and his entire tenure at the FBI. |
| 1:16.6 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. I'm Cole the Echkowitz. It's |
| 1:21.9 | Wednesday, September 17th. This week, prosecutors charged a man for aggravated murder in the killing of Charlie Kirk. |
| 1:29.4 | His name is Tyler Robinson. |
| 1:31.6 | He is 22 years old. |
| 1:33.8 | According to exclusive post-reporting, Robinson appeared to confess to friends in an online chat |
| 1:38.8 | shortly before he turned himself in. |
| 1:41.6 | He wrote, It was me. |
... |
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