FBI Director Kash Patel plans Russia trip - POLITICO
By: Nahal Toosi, Kyle Cheney and John Sakellariadis (POLITICO)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
FBI Director Kash Patel is planning to visit Russia later this year, likely in mid-October, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the situation.
It would be an unusual and sensitive trip for an FBI chief to one of America's top adversaries. The plans come as Washington and Moscow continue to be at odds over the war in Ukraine, with U.S. lawmakers demanding the imposition of heavy new sanctions on Russia.
Patel has a history of involvement in controversial Russia-related matters dating to President Donald Trump's first term, including trying to cast doubt on investigations into whether Trump colluded with Russia to help him win the 2016 election — an episode he now calls the "Russiagate hoax." Patel also is developing a track record of taking eye-catching trips in his role atop the FBI, drawing scrutiny from Congress.
According to the U.S. official familiar with the travel plans, Patel is scheduled to visit Russia on Oct. 14-15, first stopping in Moscow and then St. Petersburg. His host is likely to be the FSB, the Russian security service that is heir to the Soviet-era KGB, the official said.
The person familiar with the situation confirmed that Patel is planning to visit Russia in the fall, including stops in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Both people were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive travel plans.
It's not clear if Patel will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin or any of his senior political aides. Also unclear is what is on his agenda for discussion.
As with any such plans by U.S. officials, they are tentative and subject to change.
Spokespeople for the White House referred a request for comment to the FBI. Spokespeople for the FBI and the Department of Justice did not respond to similar requests.
Though it has been years since an FBI director visited Moscow, other top intelligence officials have made the trip. In a 2018 letter, then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo said the open lines of dialogue were valuable, particularly in areas of mutual interest like combating terrorism.
"We vigorously defend America in these encounters and pull no punches," Pompeo said at the time.
Robert Mueller was the last FBI director known to have visited Russia, in 2013. Mueller was later appointed as a special counsel to investigate ties between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russia, as well as broader Russian efforts to interfere in U.S. elections.
U.S. intelligence officials have concluded for years that Moscow has been behind efforts to sow discord and interfere in U.S. elections, findings supported by documents Trump declassified last week ahead of a speech intended to bolster support for his long-shot effort to overhaul U.S. voting laws. The Kremlin has also been suspected to be behind major cybersecurity breaches of government agencies and private sector companies.
Patel rose to prominence as a result of the central role he played as a staffer to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 and 2018, when the panel — led by then-Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) — investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Although Republicans on the panel concluded that Russia mounted an influence operation to "undermine the U.S. liberal democratic order," they rejected the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia aspired to help Trump win the 2016 election. Late in Trump's first term, Patel served on the National Security Council, where in 2020 he traveled secretly to meet with Syrian government officials in a bid to secure the release of two American hostages.
Patel spent the years between Trump's terms amplifying doubts about the Russia probe's origins and even writing children's books that mock Democrats who spearheaded the investigation. He also faced questions about a $25,000 payment for his involvement in producing a film financed by a Kremlin-linked film company.
Patel's past travel and spending decisions have blurred the lines between recreation and official business, prompting scrutiny across Capitol Hill and at times angering the White House.
The FBI director attended the gold medal men's hockey final at the Winter Olympics in Italy, a trip he said was needed to extradite a Chinese hacker; went snorkeling last summer near a battleship sunk during the Japanese surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor; and has been accused of using a government jet to see his girlfriend, a country music singer, perform.
Earlier this month, the top Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary committees launched a bicameral probe into Patel's potential misuse of taxpayer-funded resources.
News of the trip also comes amid acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's effort to win Senate confirmation and could prompt new questions from lawmakers about the Justice Department's decision-making.
After the Kremlin launched a full-scale war on Ukraine in 2022, senior Biden administration officials steered clear of visiting Russia, although the U.S. kept open its embassy in Moscow.
Trump has sought to ease tensions with Putin. During his second term, his special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have visited Russia multiple times, including meeting with Putin, to discuss ending the Ukraine war.
Trump himself met with Putin in Anchorage last year.
And last month, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., who chairs the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, attended the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Russian state media reported that he described his visit as a Washington "pivot" toward Russia.
U.S. lawmakers, on a bipartisan basis, remain wary of Russia. Some members of Congress are currently urging Trump to support a bill that uses steep new penalties, including tariffs, to punish Russian entities. Trump has recently said he wants the bill to also include sanctions on Iran.
Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
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Why would Patel go to Russia just before the mid-terms? Who better to get instructions from on how to subvert democracy than Putin.
The most prominent current event, of course, is the American right wing's assault of America.
Maybe they will keep him, lol.
They can have him. Trump's whole Cabinet, too. And Vance would definitely feel more at home in Russia with his ideological soulmates than he would anywhere in the U. S.
trump sent the other guy that could drink with the russians, since pete's busy ...
Maybe the girlfriend is expanding her "tour" to Moscow parking lots.
kash thinks he's on a secret mission, but he's become an embarrassment to trump, and putin has offered to throw him out of a window ...
This fucktard has always been an embarrassment.
An updated version of throwing someone under a bus?
Morning..you read my message about open windows...
ICE the victim weaponized the car we rammed into.
KGB The victim was cleaning windows when he apparently jumped from the 8th floor
todd blanche - my dog ate the epstein files ...
... of course.
Morning... realised later it was meant to be "read my mind". Derrr🤣
Well I hadn't had brekkie yet that's my excuse and I am sticking to it...and I had an interrupted sleep..
A koala was clomping along the fence at 1.15am and woke me up... thought I had better check to make sure he was ok so spot lighted him with the torch..he had such a surprised look on his face of.."oh you're up!!"...
I went back to bed.. even the cat didn't get up..🐨
The culprit..
not her job, servant ...
He's setting up misinformation farms
he's delivering another blackmail payment to putin ...
See? He has lots of reasons to go.
But why October? It gets cold there that time of year...like Fairbanks, Alaska cold
They want to make sure they're not missing anything last minute in their plan on subverting the mid-terms.
trump probably needs to firm up some russian mercs as backups, just in case the US military doesn't fall in line in november ...
To meet his Uncle Donald's best friend, confidant, blackmailer, and handler
Well, it isn't for beer and pussy.
I dunno, I hear russia's short about a million or so men that were in their prime before they went to ukraine ...
Right, because they drink vodka in Russia. The Russians specialize in getting foreign officials drunk and then secretly filming them with prostitutes in their hotel rooms. They call that kompromat. Or insurance.
Exactly
kash will probably be a goldmine for putin ...
Start with a thyroid test.
... 2 weeks after exposure.
Maybe he's short on cash.
maybe his girlfriend is making a video ...
Maybe he is going to beg Putin for Trump's pee video to prevent Trump from firing him.
that's probably the replacement video kash's girlfriend will be making, in addition to some more action videos ...
They are going to teach him how to rig an election.
Putin throws his opponents out of windows
And kills some of them using chemical nerve agents, biological poisons and highly lethal nuclear isotopes. You don't want to forget the nuclear isotopes. Putin loves radioactive assassinations.
Yeah...which one was that? Polonium? Injected by umbrella
That's a favorite. With a very clever delivery system, too. Unique.
Kash prefers using ICE to shoot them in the streets and then lets ICE investigate themselves. Renee and Alex are two votes forever lost because of Trump and his violent wannabe-authoritarian administration. Talk about voter suppression.
Fox guarding the hen house.
But those deaths were insignificant! Right?
I thought it was ricin?
Ok now you're gonna make me go look that up
there was a fellow that did die of radiation poisoning from having polonium introduced into his system and that could have been orally
Here is a really good Wikipedia article on it:
you were right
First for me! Thanks for looking it up!
First time a woman told you were right? lol
LOL you hush now....
They've been learning that for a while. He needs to go in October to finalize their plan.
trump is sending some classified material he still has to russia for safe keeping and a bag of money. he's getting some action videos of melania back that he can use in case the prenup doesn't hold when she files for divorce.