WHAT A DAY:
Is Kash Patel handing wads of taxpayer dollars to an inner circle of loyal FBI cronies?
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is demanding answers.
FBI Director Kash Patel seems to find himself engulfed in a new mess every week. The scandal du jour involves fresh claims that the beer-chugging director may be tapping a “personal slush fund,” drawn from the FBI budget, to hand out bonus payments to a select group of top bureau insiders, according to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD).
“According to information received by the House Committee on the Judiciary, your office has issued more than $1 million in awards to special agents serving on your ‘Director’s Advisory Team,’” Raskin wrote in a letter to Patel, describing the recipients as a clique of “loyalist MAGA henchmen” willing to carry out Patel’s personal orders, along with agents on Patel’s personal security detail.
Patel appears to be choosing “his favored employees, who he bestows extra money on as a routine practice,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the committee, told What A Day in a phone call this afternoon.
Raskin’s team is digging for more info. His letter to the FBI, first reported by MS NOW, demands a full accounting of all FBI bonuses and related communications.
Why would Patel make such payments? Only the director knows how his mind works, Raskin said. But the congressman has a few thoughts of his own, which center on loyalty to Patel and humiliating reports about his fondness for a drink (which Patel has denied).
“It could be an effort to maintain the loyalty of people who witness conduct that would be embarrassing to the director if it became public,” Raskin said. “These extra payments create a thicker wall of silence around the director.”
The FBI and DOJ didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment from What A Day.
