FBI Director Kash Patel dismissed criticism from one of his predecessors, James Comey, who recently suggested he was ill equipped to run the bureau.
In an exclusive interview Wednesday on Fox News’s “Special Report,” host Bret Baier asked Patel about Comey’s recent Instagram post of shells arranged to form “8647,” in what many supporters of President Trump’s understood to be a threat on the president’s life.
Others suggested the message could have been a call to oust Trump from power. Comey insisted, however, that he did not arrange the seashells himself — merely took a photo of it — and that he would never call for violence. He subsequently removed the post.
“You know, the FBI is bigger than any leader it’s ever had or ever will have,” Patel said about the Instagram post. “And James Comey is a private citizen, and he can walk around the beach and talk about seashells and Crayola crayons for all I care about and talk about how we’re the conspiracy theorists.”
“But I’ll just remind the American people of one thing,” he continued. “When that man was the leader of the FBI, he perpetrated the largest criminal conspiracy, packaged political information from overseas, took it to a federal FISA court and illegally surveilled a political opponent.”
“So, I won’t be lectured on how to run this FBI from that man,” the FBI chief added.
It was not immediately clear what criticism Patel’s remarks were addressing, but earlier that day, Comey made an appearance on CNN and raised questions about Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino’s leadership abilities.
The former FBI director said he’s not confident in the agency’s leadership but said he has faith in the career officials there.
“I hope the career people are able to support the director and the deputy director,” he said, referring to Patel and Bongino. “There are lots of people in the FBI who know what they’re doing. I hope these two guys are letting them guide them.”
Comey, appointed by former President Obama in 2013, noted that he lacks confidence in the leaders themselves.
“Nothing in their life or their career gives me confidence that they know anything about leading an organization like that,” Comey said. “And so, I would have serious doubts.”
“I bet they do internally about whether they have doubts. Great. Let the people who know what they’re doing give you advice, and listen to them,” he added.
Trump ousted Comey from his post leading the FBI in 2017 and the ex-director has since been a vocal critic of the president and vice versa.
