Writing in a fiery memo, FBI Director Kash Patel went nuclear on left-leaning CNN over an allegedly entirely false report it ran on his supposed plans to implement a “major cutback” to personnel working for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), saying in that memo to ATF personnel that CNN’s supposed report is entirely a fabrication.
As background, FBI Director Patel has indicated that he wants to refocus the federal law enforcement agencies he controls, such as the FBI and ATF, on fighting crime rather than on politicized squabbles. It was in the context of that restructuring of their focuses that CNN published its report that Patel claims is entirely false.
In that allegedly false CNN report, which was released on Saturday, March 22, and relied on three anonymous sources for the claims within it, CNN alleged that Mr. Patel “has outlined plans to move as many as 1,000 ATF agents to the FBI” and that he will be “cutting ATF’s agents by more than a third.”
Continuing, the network went on to insinuate that he was doing so at the behest of certain gun rights groups, claiming, “The move represents a major cutback of the ATF, an agency that long has been in the crosshairs of gun rights groups that believe its work infringes on Second Amendment rights.” The report then alleged that he was backing off the plan because of reports, such as the CNN report, on it.
Mr. Patel then released a memo addressed to ATF personnel, one that was obtained by and reported upon by Fox News Digital, in which he informed the agents that the CNN report was entirely spurious. Beginning, Fox News Digital reports, he said, “I want to address a report from this weekend speculating about the intentions of FBI leadership with personnel decisions at the ATF.”
Continuing, Patel noted that the report and all of its claims, from the allegation that he would cut a third of the personnel to the claim he backed off because of reporting, were false. He told the agents, according to Fox News Digital, “This weekend, CNN reported news of a plan on the part of our leadership to ‘cut as many as one third’ of ATF agents and reallocate 1,000 agents over to the FBI. The report even suggested our leadership team altered course after reading a news report, and ultimately backed off certain aspects of changes. This ‘report’ is entirely false.”
Patel then, the report provides, sounded off on CNN’s claims that reporting had gotten him to change his plans, saying that he would remain in operational control of the agency and that the media would never be in charge of it. He said, “The fake news will NEVER be responsible for operational command authority over the ATF, we are.”
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Further sounding off on the same issue, he said the input of those woke media outlets will never change his plans, declaring, “The brave men and women of the ATF who courageously dedicate themselves to protecting the American public will not have their security jeopardized by the media’s disinformation campaigns. When we make decisions, they will be final, regardless of the input of CNN or any other news organization.”
Watch Patel comment on holding politicized agents accountable here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video