‘That Just Doesn’t Happen’: NBC Intel Expert Stunned by FBI Director’s Response to Charlie Kirk Killing
NBC Justice and Intelligence Correspondent Ken Dilanian was taken aback by FBI Director Kash Patel’s response to the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday.
Kirk was killed with a single shot to the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University by a sniper who remains at large, as of early Thursday morning. Authorities say Kirk was shot from a distance of about 200 yards, strongly suggesting that the shooter “wasn’t an amateur.”
Shortly after the shooting, Patel posted on social media to suggest that the shooter had been caught.
“The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody,” he wrote. “Thank you to the local and state authorities in Utah for your partnership with @fbi.”
Two hours later, Patel said the subject “has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement.”
Several hours later, Dilanian appeared on The Last Word on MSNBC, where Lawrence O’Donnell asked if Patel planned to head to Utah.
“Do we know anything about the movements of the FBI director tonight?” O’Donnell asked. “Is he remaining in Washington as he headed for the scene? Is everything that he’s putting out coming from his office in FBI headquarters?
“I don’t have that information, Lawrence,” Dilanian replied. “Kash Patel is not known to sort of publicly broadcast his movements except in narrow instances when he wants those to be known. I have no information that he is heading to the scene, but it’s not outside of the realm of possibility.”
Dilanian then expressed disbelief that the FBI director would take a victory lap by basically announcing that the shooter had been caught when that was not the case:
What’s clear is that the information flow to [Patel] has not been accurate, or he is not interpreting it correctly, because it was just remarkable to have him say that– essentially imply that the shooter had been caught and then two hours later announcing that that person was not, in fact, the shooter and had been released. That just doesn’t happen in these situations.
Dilanian went on to explain that the Trump administration had recently removed the director of the FBI’s field office in Salt Lake City. Moreover, he reported that FBI resources had been diverted to immigration cases:
Look, I’ve been talking to people all night who assure me that very competent and capable FBI and other federal agents are bringing all the resources to bear to try to hunt down this shooter.
But it’s also true that the special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City field office was unceremoniously fired some weeks ago. This is a decorated, well-regarded Pakistani American female agent who joined the bureau after 9/11 and spent years doing counterterrorism work.
So, you have a new agent in charge of that office. Whether that is having an impact on the response and on the communication and information flow remains to be seen. But it’s something that the public should know about.
And the public should also know that we reporters who cover the FBI have been hearing for months now that many FBI agents who have been devoted to domestic terrorism, in particular domestic terrorism squads and those working on domestic terrorism cases, have been diverted to the immigration enforcement effort, which is the thing that the FBI normally does not do. They’ve been required to go out on patrol. Some full time. Some have just walked away from their domestic terrorism duties.
And this is at a time when, you know, as we all know, extremism, domestic extremism in this country is on the rise and political violence is on the rise. The FBI is the agency that we expect to address that. And it’s not clear that all the resources that are capable of being brought to bear on this problem are, in fact, being brought to bear.
Watch above via MSNBC.
