FBI Director Kash Patel announced Wednesday that the bureau has cut ties with the Anti–Defamation League (ADL), accusing embattled ex-FBI head James Comey of “embedding” agents at the antisemitism watchdog to surveil Americans.
Patel’s decision to sever the bureau’s relationship with the ADL comes as the organization has faced criticism for listing slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s group in its “Glossary of Extremism and Hate.”
It also follows last week’s federal grand jury indictment against Comey for allegedly lying to Congress.
“James Comey wrote ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them – a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans,” Patel wrote on X.
“That era is OVER,” he added. “This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.”
Comey professed his “love” for the ADL, and highlighted the group’s extensive work with the FBI, in a 2014 speech.
“If this sounds a bit like a love letter to the ADL, it is, and rightly so,” Comey said in remarks at the ADL’s National Leadership Summit in 2014.
“Your experience in hate crime prevention and investigations is essential,” Comey continued, noting that the ADL’s research has “helped agents and analysts as they conduct threat assessments and prepare intelligence reports.”
He went on to praise the ADL’s “leadership in tracking and exposing domestic and international terrorist threats” as “invaluable.”
The former FBI director also noted that the bureau “works with the ADL to host civil rights and hate crime training for our state and local counterparts through a number of programs,” including a mandatory “Law Enforcement and Society” course for all new recruits.
“Since 2010, FBI employees have participated in more than 105 training sessions sponsored by the ADL on extremism, terrorism, and hate crimes, in 17 states and here in the District,” Comey said, noting that the FBI and ADL also worked together to create a “Hate Crimes Training Manual” for law enforcement.
In 2017, Comey once again spoke at an ADL conference and remarked: “Three years later I can say, from the perspective of the FBI, we’re still in love with you.”
“We are not only educating ourselves, we are working with the ADL to build bridges in the communities we serve,” Comey said, concluding his speech by saying, “Love, the FBI.”
Billionaire Elon Musk and conservatives have recently expressed outrage over the ADL’s inclusion of Kirk’s group in its since-pulled “Extremism and Hate” index.
The ADL accused Kirk, who was shot and killed by a sniper last month, of promoting “Christian nationalism” and making “problematic comments.”
The organization said Tuesday it was retiring the glossary, arguing that entries were being “intentionally misrepresented and misused.”
“The FBI was taking their ‘hate group’ definitions from ADL, which is why FBI was investigating Charlie Kirk [and] Turning Point, instead of his murderers,” Musk wrote in a post on X.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) published unclassified FBI files last month indicating that Turning Point USA was among nearly 100 Republican or Republican-aligned groups targeted by the FBI’s so-called “Artic Frost” probe in the wake of the 2020 election.
In a statement, the ADL acknowledged it had “seen the statement from FBI Director Patel regarding the FBI’s relationship with ADL.”
“ADL has deep respect for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and law enforcement officers at all levels across the country who work tirelessly every single day to protect all Americans regardless of their ancestry, religion, ethnicity, faith, political affiliation or any other point of difference,” the statement continued. “In light of an unprecedented surge of antisemitism, we remain more committed than ever to our core purpose to protect the Jewish people.”
The FBI did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
