FBI Director Kash Patel demands three apologies from US network over retracted Russia report

Washington: FBI Director Kash Patel has demanded “three apologies” from US network MS NOW over its retracted report that he had landed in Russia, as an FBI official said the bureau was “always hunting leakers” and a separate row over his crime statistics simmered.

“MS NOW put me in Russia based on two anonymous sources. I was in Virginia, honoring law enforcement at Liberty University. The network had to correct its false report,” Patel wrote on X.

“Three apologies are owed: to this FBI, to the law enforcement community, and to the American People,” he added.

An FBI official told Fox News Digital the two leakers would “likely” be identified, adding: “We are always hunting leakers.”

On October 14, MS NOW correspondent Ken Dilanian, citing two sources, reported that Patel had landed in Russia. Patel was in Lynchburg, Virginia, with Republican Congressman John McGuire. Dilanian corrected the report on air about two hours later.

“The timing of any potential trip remains unclear. Again, we regret this error, and we are transparent about when we make errors,” he said.

Earlier on October 14, MS NOW had published an analysis of Justice Department data saying Patel’s claim of a 90 per cent rise in violent crime arrests was “inflated by including arrests that state and local police forces and other federal agencies have made when an FBI employee is present.”

It said the FBI had referred 15 per cent fewer criminal cases for federal prosecution than in the same period of the Biden administration.

Patel hit back on X. “The data is collected by the field and our partners - not from me - and whether you like it or not the FBI had a 90% increase in violent crime arrests from the previous 18 months,” he wrote.

Deputy Director Christopher Raia wrote that “this headline is an insult to law enforcement across the country and especially to the FBI,” adding: “The process behind how we collect these statistics has remained the same year after year.”

Dilanian defended the story on X, writing that “no one at the FBI or anywhere else has disputed the DOJ data showing FBI criminal referrals down 15%,” according to Deadline.

The FBI also announced this week that its Summer Heat 2.0 initiative with state and local partners, from June 1 to September 20, resulted in 8,927 arrests.

Of those, “more than 5,900 arrests fell under the FBI’s violent crime and gang program,” the bureau said. The release did not say how many were made by FBI agents rather than partners.

Patel, who is of Indian origin, has led the FBI since February 2025.

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