FBI Director Kash Patel ridiculed a Dem congressman who mocked him for allegedly refusing to disembark from a plane in Utah the day after Charlie Kirk’s assassination until he was given a raid jacket and then ended up wearing a women’s one.
Without confirming or denying the alleged incident, Patel fired back Monday at California Rep. Eric Swalwell for making fun of him and pointed out the congressman’s past interactions with a suspected Chinese spy.
“I was looking for a Youth Large… Domestic terrorism arrests are UP 30% this year — impressive, considering I spent zero days dating a Chinese spy named Fang Fang, where should I send your women’s medium for date night?” Patel fired back at Swalwell on X.
Swalwell, one of the most famous congressional thorns in President Trump’s side, had past ties to Fang Fang, also known as Christine Fang, who is suspected of having been a Chinese spy.
She participated in fundraising for Swalwell in 2014, but he cut off ties with her the next year after being briefed about concerns of Chinese infiltration, according to Axios.
The Golden State Democrat had publicly mocked Patel over a report by a national alliance of retired and active-duty FBI special agents and analysts. The Post exclusively broke the news of that 115-page report earlier this week.
On Sept. 11, 2025, FBI special agents at the Salt Lake City field office “had to stop and ask around to find an FBI raid jacket — a medium-sized one — that would fit,” according to the report.
The FBI director “would not disembark from the plane without an FBI raid jacket.”
Eventually, they got him a jacket that belonged to a female agent, though Patel allegedly whined that “two areas on the upper sleeves did not have Velcro patches attached.”
Members of the FBI SWAT Team had to remove patches from their uniforms and give them to Patel to put on the loaner raid jacket, the report said.
The report cited ALPHA 99, who was described as a “highly respected” source that spent multiple decades in the FBI, for the anecdote on the raid jacket.
“I don’t mind that FBI Director Kash Patel had to wear a women’s (size medium) jacket to cosplay as someone in charge,” Swalwell snarkily posted on X on Monday, reacting to the report.
“I just wish he’d focus on stopping the rampant domestic terrorism happening on his watch.”
Patel also reamed out FBI agents working the case on Kirk’s assassination over perceived blunders and took credit for investigative progress by other law enforcement agencies, the report said.
Overall, he was described as “in over his head,” and his deputy, Dan Bongino, was ripped as “something of a clown” in the report, which characterized the FBI as a “rudderless ship” and “all f–ked up” under their leadership.
The stunning report was released days after Trump and the White House hit back at a media story and rumors that Patel is on his way out as FBI director.
Patel has largely been mum on the blistering report, while Bongino has hit back at The Post’s reporting and defended the pair’s leadership.
“Anonymous sources from the Wray-Comey era FBI are desperately trying to derail our reforms,” Bongino contended Monday in an X post that Patel shared.
“We are not turning back. Kash and I are laser-focused on keeping the Homeland safe, and on crushing violent crime. We’ve sent the murder rate to a historic low, and we’ve doubled the amount of violent crime arrests from prior years.”
