The space of a weekend turned into major trouble for woke MSNBC, as one of its guests made a very incorrect, potentially libelous claim about Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel, something that put the network in legal danger and forced it into an embarrassing, on-air retraction.
The incident began on Friday, May 2, when former FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi appeared on the network and lied about Director Patel, claiming that the Deep State-detested Trump ally was spending too much time partying and not enough working.
Specifically, Figliuzzi said, without any evidence other than an unnamed, anonymous source he claimed gave him the information, “Reportedly, he’s been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover Building.”
Not done, Figliuzzi went on to present the made up fondness of Director Patel for nightclubs rather than work as a virtue because it keeps him away from ruining things. Beginning that part of the smear, he said, “There are reports that daily briefings to him have been changed from every day to maybe twice weekly.”
Continuing, he claimed that was a good thing because it kept Patel from destroying the FBI, saying, “So this is both a blessing and a curse — because if he’s really trying to run things without his experience, without any experience level, things could be bad. If he’s not plugged in, things could be bad.”
On Monday, May 5, a somewhat worried-seeming MSNBC personality, “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire, quickly walked back those ridiculous, unsubstantiated, and potentially libelous claims from Figliuzzi and tried to distance his network from the potentially legally actionable lies about Director Patel.
Doing so, Lemire noted that Figliuzzi had made the unsubstantiated claim about Director Patel during the Friday broadcast of the program, making his smears “Morning Joe’s” problem. He said, “Let’s circle back to a segment from Friday’s show. Frank Figliuzzi was on that morning during this hour, discussing the work of administration officials.”
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Continuing, Lemire noted that the claim Figliuzzi made was a “misstatement” that was unverified, saying, “At the end of that segment, Figliuzzi said that FBI director Kash Patel has reportedly been more visible at nightclubs than at his office at FBI headquarters. This was a misstatement. We have not verified that claim.” Watch him walk it back here:
Patel, for his part, has recently focused not on nightclubs, as the woke MSNBC guest claimed, but on fighting child trafficking. Announcing a recent operation that rounded up hundreds of child predators, patel said,
“Every child deserves to grow up free from fear and exploitation, and the FBI will continue to be relentless in our pursuit of those who exploit the most vulnerable among us. Operation Restore Justice proves that no predator is out of reach and no child will be forgotten.”
Continuing, he explained, “By leveraging the strength of all our field offices and our federal, state and local partners, we’re sending a clear message: there is no place to hide for those who prey on children.” He further added, “If you harm children in America, you will be given no sanctuary. There is nowhere you can hide. You will be hunted down, and you will be prosecuted.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video