WASHINGTON — FBI Director Kash Patel ripped MS Now on Wednesday after the news outlet wrongly claimed that he had landed in Moscow for a mysterious trip to Russia — with the bureau saying that Patel was, in fact, visiting Liberty University in Virginia.
“We don’t know what Kash Patel is doing in Russia. And that’s one of the things that’s concerning our FBI sources — they don’t know either,” MS Now reporter Ken Dilanian said in an on-air report that cited “two people familiar with the matter.”
The FBI responded on X, “MS Now’s ‘sources’ are ‘familiar’ with NOTHING!” and posted side-by-side videos of the incorrect TV report and of Patel at the evangelical university.
“Left: MS Now reports two sources familiar say Kash Patel just landed in Russia. Right: Here’s where Kash Patel actually is… Liberty U, doing a law enforcement appreciation event,” the bureau wrote.
Patel amplified the denial, adding: “Facts over clickbait.”
Dilanian later retracted his report.
“We’ve since learned that Patel did not, in fact, land in Russia today and remains in the US,” the reporter said, adding, “We regret this error, and we are transparent about when we make errors.”
Plans for a mid-October visit by Patel to Russia were reported in July by Politico.
Other senior Trump administration officials have visited Moscow this year.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited the Russian capital on Aug. 25, reportedly to convey a warning against hostilities with NATO members, including cyberattacks, amid mounting tensions over Ukraine.
Efforts to resolve the Russia-Ukraine war, meanwhile, have been led by Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month before traveling to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
