Next month, when President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee, Kash Patel, is expected to take over as head of the FBI, it could create an uncomfortable atmosphere at the bureau’s headquarters. A recent government watchdog report revealed that the FBI had spied on Patel, who has vowed to “clean house” at the Hoover Building and hold accountable those who “abused their power” during the Russiagate investigation.
Patel might begin by addressing the officials and agents who secretly gathered his phone records and emails starting in late 2017, when he led a House Intelligence Committee investigation into the FBI’s use of Hillary Clinton’s false opposition research to surveil a Trump campaign official as a supposed “Russian agent.” A nearly 100-page report from the Justice Department’s inspector general revealed that the FBI subpoenaed Patel’s records as part of an investigation to determine whether congressional staffers had leaked classified information about its Trump-Russia “collusion” case to the Washington Post and other media outlets, the New York Post reported.
Working alongside career prosecutors at the Justice Department, the FBI pressured Google and Apple to provide sensitive private information on subjects it had identified “between September 2017 and March 2018,” a period when Andrew McCabe was serving as acting FBI director. The report noted that then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions was not involved, having recused himself from the Russia probe.
The court orders issued to Google and Apple imposed gag orders, preventing the service providers from informing Patel and other affected individuals about the data collection. As chief counsel, Patel had no knowledge that the FBI, the very subject of his investigation, was secretly collecting his data and gaining access to the identities of witnesses he was communicating with, including whistleblowers. At the time, Patel was pressing to review FBI documents and depose witnesses in order to determine whether the bureau had abused its power in securing a FISA warrant to surveil Trump aide Carter Page.
However, Patel remained unaware of the FBI’s actions until 2022, when Google was finally permitted to provide him with a copy of the subpoena.
Outraged, he told investigative reporter Paul Sperry at the time: “The FBI and DOJ subpoenaed my personal records while I caught them doing this to Page back in 2017.” He said the McCabe FBI didn’t want anybody to find out that it “literally copied and pasted” Democrat opposition research, wholesale, into wiretap-warrant applications. He expressed hope that those responsible for the abuses would be prosecuted by a future Trump administration.: “They must be held accountable or they’ll only abuse their power again.”
The investigation by the IG shows that the FBI renewed subpoenas annually, monitoring congressional staffers for up to five years. This indicates that McCabe’s successor, Christopher Wray, approved the continued data collection, The Post noted. Justice Department IG Michael Horowitz found the unprecedented surveillance created “at a minimum, the appearance of inappropriate interference” by the FBI in “legitimate oversight activity” by Congress. He warned that it could have a “chilling” effect on whistleblowers coming forward.
On Wednesday, the day after the IG report was released, Wray announced that he would step down at the end of President Biden’s term, allowing Trump nominee Patel to lead the agency. “This [IG] report highlights exactly why Kash Patel is the perfect leader to reform and rebuild the FBI,” a spokeswoman for Patel told The Post. “Kash understands the critical balance between national security and protecting civil rights [and] will work hand-in-hand with Congress to restore trust.”
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