MS NOW on Wednesday reported and almost immediately retracted a claim that FBI Director Kash Patel was in Russia for unknown talks. Within minutes of the report going live, reporters and representatives for Patel confirmed that he was actually attending a speaking event at Liberty University, which led to a retraction from the network.
Justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian, who sourced the information, elaborated that the visit was intended as a two-day trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg hosted by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Dilanian noted that FBI sources expressed uncertainty about the purpose of the reported presence in Russia, stating, “We don’t know what Kash Patel is doing in Russia. And that’s one of the things that’s concerning our FBI sources — they don’t know either.”
He added that the network had requested comment from the FBI, which had not responded at the time of the broadcast. The report referenced earlier published accounts of a planned mid-October trip, including reporting from July that had drawn objections from some Democratic lawmakers who urged cancellation.
Shortly after the segment aired, the FBI disputed the account. Its Rapid Response account on X posted side-by-side material contrasting the MS NOW report with video from a law enforcement appreciation event.
“Left: MS Now reports two sources familiar say Kash Patel just landed in Russia. Right: Here’s where Kash Patel actually is… Liberty U, doing a law enforcement appreciation event. MS Now’s ‘sources’ are ‘familiar’ with NOTHING,” the post stated.
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Video and photographs from the event in Lynchburg, Virginia, showed Patel participating in a roundtable discussion with local law enforcement and students from Liberty University School of Law, hosted by Rep. John McGuire (R-VA). FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs Ben Williamson separately described receiving images of Patel at the Virginia event while viewing the MS NOW segment.
Hours later, during a broadcast with Alicia Menendez, Dilanian issued an on-air correction.
“I want to correct reporting from earlier today. I reported that two sources had told us that FBI director Kash Patel had landed in Russia for a planned trip that had been reported about recently. We’ve since learned that Patel did not, in fact, land in Russia today and remains in the U.S.,” Dilanian said.
The FBI did not answer our questions when we asked them about it.” Dilanian added that while prior reports of a planned meeting had raised concerns among some lawmakers and that the timing of any potential trip remained unclear, “we regret this error, and we are transparent about when we make errors.”
Patel also issued a response in an X post of his own. “MS NOW just reported I had ‘landed in Russia’ for meetings with the FSB. The same outlet constantly tells lies about this FBI and law enforcement’s historic achievements in safeguarding the American people.” He listed figures on violent crime arrests, a decline in the nationwide murder rate, gang member arrests, Most Wanted fugitive captures, child victims located, and fentanyl seizures, attributing the results to the work of FBI personnel and state, local, and tribal partners,” the director wrote.
He concluded that the network owed “an apology to this FBI, the men and women of law enforcement, and to the American people.” Patel also posted the phrase “Facts over clickbait.”
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[ H/T Trending Politics ]
