FBI insider raises concerns about Kash Patel's role in hostage rescue

Source: CBS News

Updated on: January 27, 2025 / 4:52 PM EST


Days before this week's high-stakes confirmation hearing of Kash Patel to be FBI director, a bureau insider has come forward with new information questioning Patel's judgment during sensitive hostage rescue missions, CBS News has learned.

The whistleblower, whose identity is being withheld by Senate Democrats for fear of retaliation, worked with the FBI's Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, which leads the government's missions to rescue hostages overseas. The whistleblower alleges that Patel violated firmly entrenched protocols to keep such operations under wraps until the captives are safely in U.S. hands and their families have been notified.

In a letter obtained by CBS News, Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote that Patel, while serving on the National Security Council during the first Trump term, "broke protocol regarding hostage rescues by publicly commenting without authorization on the then-in-progress retrieval of two Americans held captive by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen in October 2020."

According to the letter, on Oct. 14 at 10:55 a.m., the Wall Street Journal published a story in which Patel confirmed that the two American captives and the remains of a third were exchanged for two hundred Houthi fighters who were being held in Saudi Arabia. According to the letter, the news report was published "several hours before the hostages were in the confirmed custody of the United States." In the end the Americans returned home safely, but FBI officials involved in the mission were livid over Patel's leak, which they regarded as reckless and potentially risking tragic results.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-insider-kash-patel-hostage-rescue/