Former FBI Assistant Director Says Kash Patel Better Get a Lawyer and Quick After Name Appears in Mar-a-Lago Affidavit
National security analyst at NBC News and former FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi told SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah that former Trump administration official Kash Patel should “better get an attorney” and soon, after Patel’s name appeared prominently in the affidavit that result in the Mar-a-Lago raid search warrant.
On Friday’s edition of The Dean Obeidallah Show, the host spoke with Figliuzzi about the classified documents referenced in the Mar-a-Lago search warrant and the affidavit, released on Friday, which mentioned Patel by name.
Patel has been out front in making the argument that the documents stored at Trump’s golf resort in Florida couldn’t constitute a national security scandal over classified information because Trump had the authority to simply stand over a document and declare it unclassified at will.
Obeidallah asked Figliuzzi about that concept.
“Can you explain to people two things. One is, can Trump just say these are declassified, and that makes them declassified?” he asked. “And secondly, can you just declassify a document, but what’s still in it, like What’s in it? Like where are all our spy locations, information, could that still be classified?”
“So if you’re leaving it around, well, the document might be declassified, you’re still putting our national security at risk because someone’s reading something that is highly sensitive to our nation,” said Obeidallah.
“So I tell you what, why don’t you and I, when we’re done with our talk here today, let’s go offline, and both of us will file a Freedom of Information Act request to the US government and we’ll say, ‘Hey, we hear that all those pages of classified documents that were at Mar-a-Lago are declassified and we’d love to get a copy, since now they’re unclassified.’ And let’s see what the answer is,” Figliuzzi responded.
“You know what the answer is going to be? Screw you, Dean and Frank,” he said. “Because they’re not declassified. They’re not!”
Figliuzzi said that while the president of the United States is “the ultimate classifier and declassifying authority,” that is not absolute, and that there are procedures you have to undertake regardless. Using his own former work at the FBI as an example, he explained that declassification is a process that requires record-keeping and accountability. He also pointed out that it doesn’t extend to some areas, such as nuclear secrets or intelligence that was classified by authorities outside of the United States.
He then turned to the subject of Kash Patel, who dealt directly with the National Archives regarding the documents at Mar-a-Lago and has been very out front in defense of the ex-president on the subject.
Patel’s name appeared unredacted in the released copy of the affidavit that was made public on Friday, a fact which Patel said intentionally put his safety at risk.
“Kash Patel better get an attorney, soon,” said Figliuzzi. “Because Kash Patel is the guy saying, ‘I knew all about this standing declassification order. I know all about it all.'”
“Oh good,” said Figliuzzi. “You’ll be telling a grand jury about that process, yeah.”
MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade also said this week that other members of the Trump team, including his lawyers, could face investigation or charges in the scandal.
Watch the clip above, courtesy of The Dean Obeidallah Show.
