FBI Director Kash Patel called out the news media on Friday, branding its attacks on the bureau for criminally charging former FBI Director James Comey "hypocrisy on steroids."
In an X post on Friday morning, Patel said that the investigation into Comey and others was led by "[c]areer FBI agents, intel analysts, and staff" who "called the balls and strikes and will continue to do so."
"The wildly false accusations attacking this FBI for the politicization of law enforcement comes from the same bankrupt media that sold the world on Russia Gate – it's hypocrisy on steroids," Patel wrote. "Their baseless objections tell us now, more than ever, that we are precisely over the target and will remain on mission until completion."
Comey, who served as FBI director from 2013 to 2017, was indicted Thursday on criminal charges of false statements and obstruction.
Since President Donald Trump began his second term in January, the Justice Department has reportedly been scrutinizing Comey's 2020 Senate Judiciary Committee testimony when he addressed Republican criticism of the Russian collusion investigation and denied that he had authorized the release of sensitive information to the press.
The grand jury returned the indictment against Comey shortly after the president named him in a social media post scolding Attorney General Pam Bondi for not bringing criminal charges against his adversaries quickly enough.
Trump fired Comey in 2017, in the early days of his first White House term, and has since regularly blasted the former FBI director for his handling of the probe that examined contact between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
Comey, meanwhile, has become a prominent critic of Trump, calling him "morally unfit" to serve as president.
After Comey was fired, another former FBI director, Robert Mueller, was appointed as a special counsel to lead the Russia investigation, which ultimately found that there had been numerous contacts between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russian officials, but no evidence of a criminal conspiracy.
The president has repeatedly slammed the probe as a "witch hunt" and Republican allies have long said that the purpose of the investigation was to undermine Trump's first administration.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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