The activities of the director of the FBI Kash Patel during the investigation of the murder of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk raised questions about his decision -making during a crisis, they told NBC News to NBC News, four former FBI officials and two administration officials.
From the shooting on Wednesday to the arrest of a suspect on Friday, Patel took measures that pause some federal and local officials and asked questions about their trial, the sources said. Several spoke on condition of anonymity, some because they were not authorized to speak publicly and others citing the fear of the reprisals of the Trump administration.
These actions varied from where Patel was on the night of the murder to what a former official described as “great” by patel about his own role after the arrest.
“He has heard concerns about how this looks,” said an administration official in a statement. “There are many trembling heads.”
Christopher O’Leary, a former FBI anti -terrorism official, said that the management of Patel research showed that “has zero experience and leadership capabilities.”
An official of the current law who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the “horrible event” of Kirk’s murder showed Patel’s “public inability to fulfill the moment as a leader.”
A White House official defended Patel’s performance, saying in a statement that the FBI director “is working at night and day” in the case.
“Anyone who doubts his resolution and dedication, especially when Charlie was such a close friend for him, is simply using this extremely sad moment in an unpleasant act of political sum,” said the official. “The approach is justice, and this murderer will face all the anger of the justice system.”
A tall White House official said in a separate statement on Sunday that President Donald Trump has confidence in Patel and his research management. “The president talked about that this morning and said he thinks everyone has done incredible job,” said the official.
Dinner at Rao’s
Hours after the shooting at the University of Utah Valley, Patel had dinner at the exclusive New York Rao’s restaurant, two sources familiar with their whereabouts said. A reserve in Rao’s, at the Upper East Side, is famous to obtain.
Patel published in X at 6:21 pm that “the subject” in Kirk’s murder was “in custody.” Approximately 90 minutes later, at 7:59 pm, he published a follow -up message saying that the “subject in custody has been published after an interrogation by the police.”
It is not clear if Patel was in Rao’s, which opens at 7 pm, when he published second place. The restaurant did not respond to a request for comments.
Four former FBI officials told NBC News that the positions were premature and unnecessary. O’Leary said they undermined public trust in the office.
“They gave the public the perception that the FBI is not so organized at a time when the public is worried because there is a crisis in development,” said O’Leary, MSNBC National Security collaborator. “They must be sure that the FBI and its partners have the situation under control, and that is done through precise strategic messages.”
When asked if Patel had dinner at Rao’s and for a response to criticism, an office spokesman said in a statement: “The FBI worked with our police partners in Utah to bring to justice the individual allegedly responsible for the horrible murder of Charlie Kirk, and we will continue to be transparent with US people with real -time updates as we can.”
Two former FBI officials said it was premature to publish in X that “the subject” was in custody.
“I should not have published anything about the case until there was certainty,” said FBI’s first former high -level official. “People need to trust what the director says. They need to be measured and always correct. It was not a good look.”
A second former FBI high -ranking official said that “research is not an advertising contest” or about “who can tweet information first.”
A call with heating
With the suspect still in general the morning after the murder of Kirk, Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, made a tense conference call with agents throughout the country, according to two officials responsible for enforcing the law and an official of the Trump administration.
Patel and Bongino said about blasphemies Call on Thursday morning that they were under intense pressure to arrest the murderer, according to the New York Times, which cited three people familiar with the exchange. Patel also called agents in Salt Lake City for not having shared photos of the suspect with him before.
That afternoon, Patel chose to travel from New York to Utah after he attended anniversary ceremonies of 9/11. Two administration officials, who spoke under anonymity, said that it was told Patel not to appear with news conferences in UTAH or make other public comments until there was an arrest.
On Thursday night, Patel appeared at a press conference at Utah with state and local officials, but did not speak. One of the administration officials said Patel “made the right decision” by remaining silent.
A third former FBI official criticized Patel’s decision to travel to Utah before an arrest. He said that Patel’s arrival could have distracted agents or move them away from the investigation.
“No serious director would appear at this stage,” said the former high -level official of the FBI. “They cannot help. They can only distract all the necessary agents to support the visit is an agent who is not available to work in the case.”
On Saturday, the day after Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested in relation to the murder, Patel said in X that the FBI had resolved the case by annulling other agencies of application of the law.
“Against all the recommendations for the application of the law, we demand that the images of video and the improved images of the suspect were released to the public,” Patel wrote. “Robinson’s father, who finally handed him over to the authorities, told the police that he recognized his son in that released video.”
The UTAH Public Security Department, the main agency of application of the State Law, issued a statement that contradicts Patel’s claim and emphasized the importance of a “unified investigation.”
An agency spokesman said that he first tried to identify the suspect using facial recognition technology to give officers a surprise element and prevent people who looked like the suspect from being unjustly analyzed.
“We do not recommend that they are not launched, however, we use technology (facial recognition) for the first time to try to identify,” said the spokesman. “When that did not succeed, we were totally supportive and, agreed, we should release the photos.”
A former upper official in a large police department who worked repeatedly with the FBI questioned Patel’s criticisms of local officials.
He said that the FBI traditionally provides radical resources to investigations, but the agency generally has local officials, who are sometimes more reliable by the public than federal officials are the faces of investigations.
“These things should be left to real investigators on the ground,” said the former senior law official, who asked not to be appointed for fear of reprisals.
The former official added that he believed that Patel’s need to please Trump to maintain his job could have made him criticize Utah officials.
He said that “it never benefits the FBI to criticize the locals” and added that Patel seemed to be “great to impress a audience of one.”
Past shots
O’Leary, now senior vice president in the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm, said that Patel’s Management of the Office has also been marked by dismissals of supervisors and agents who investigated Trump or the children of children of children from January 6.
He cited as an example the expulsion last month of Brian Driscoll, a senior FBI official who was his interim director before Patel assumed the position. Driscoll, who tried to protect agents who worked on January 6, investigations, and Two other senior FBI officials sued Patel last week and requested their return work.
O’Leary also cited the degradation and posterior withdrawal of Mehtab Syed, the head of the office of Salt Lake City of the office. He said it was not clear why Syed, that he had worked multiple cases of high -level terrorism and that he had been a high -level counterintelligence official, was expelled.
“The corrosive nature of its policies is beginning to have an impact,” O’Leary said. “And it is leading to generational destruction to an institution that is essential for the protection of our nation, both of external and internal actors.”
