Kash Patel MELTS DOWN After Eric Swalwell Reveals Newly Released FBI Files

[0:00] Swalwell opened the file. Page 4. He read one sentence. Then he looked at Patel. [0:08] Mr. Director, this file was released last week under FOIA. Your name is in it 41 times. [0:16] Patel looked at page 4. He looked at Swalwell. And then Patel said something that his own [0:23] attorney immediately covered with a hand on his arm and a whispered instruction that arrived [0:27] too late. The sentence was already in the microphone. It was already in the record. [0:31] If you are new to The Hill Report, subscribe right now. Because what Swalwell built in the next 9 [0:38] minutes, around page 4, around those 41 mentions, around what Patel said before his attorney stopped [0:45] him, is now permanently in the congressional record. And 41 appearances in a newly released FBI file [0:51] is not nothing. It is the opposite of nothing. House Intelligence Committee, Tuesday morning, [1:00] 10.52 a.m. Eastern. The hearing had been scheduled as a review of FBI Intelligence Collection [1:06] protocols and interagency information sharing practices. The kind of hearing that arrives on [1:11] the weekly calendar without generating advance press attention. And that, under normal circumstances, [1:17] produces careful, measured answers and transcripts nobody reads outside the building. [1:21] What nobody on the Republican side of the committee had anticipated, and what Swalwell's office had [1:27] taken specific and deliberate care not to signal in advance or mention in any public communication, [1:32] was that a Freedom of Information Act production, released by the DOJ 11 days before this hearing, [1:39] contained files that had been withheld from prior congressional oversight requests, for two. [1:44] Consecutive years, files that, once released, contained a level of specificity about a particular [1:50] period of FBI operational activity that no prior public document had come anywhere close to approaching. [1:56] Swalwell's office had received the FOIA production the same day it was released to the public. [2:02] They had spent 10 days reading it. All of it. Every page. In order. And when they finished, [2:13] they had identified the one page that changed the context of everything else they had read. [2:19] Page 4. 41. Mentions of One Name. In a document covering a period when that name was not yet the [2:27] director of the FBI, not yet a confirmed federal official, not yet a public figure in the way he [2:34] now is. A period when that name's presence in an active FBI operational file would require an [2:40] explanation that had never been publicly offered. And the explanation the file itself provided, [2:46] written by people inside the Bureau, contemporaneously, in the language of active operational documentation [2:53] produced in real time, was not the explanation Patel had given this committee in prior testimony [2:59] about the same general period. Not close. Not consistent. Swalwell had the prior testimony [3:08] transcript. He had the FOIA file. He had page 4. And he had 11 minutes, starting from the moment he sat [3:15] down. Swalwell was the seventh member to question Patel that morning. He sat down quietly. He set one [3:23] folder on the table. Not a stack of four folders. Not three numbered files. Not the elaborate [3:29] arrangement that signals a lengthy document by document interrogation. One folder. Already open to the [3:35] right page. He did not look at it. He looked directly at Patel. Mr. Director, 11 days ago the Department of [3:45] Justice released a FOIA production that had been withheld from congressional oversight requests for two [3:50] years. He set the folder down in front of Patel. This is from that production. I want you to look at page [3:57] four. Patel looked down at page four. His lead attorney leaned in. Patel looked at the page. [4:05] Then Swalwell. How many times does your name appear on that page, Mr. Director? Patel looked up. His [4:13] attorney was now shoulder to shoulder with him, reading the same page. Nine seconds. Then Patel, [4:21] Senator, Congressman. I'm going to need to understand the context in which this document is being [4:26] introduced before I can respond to. Swalwell looked at him. It's page four of a FOIA production [4:32] released 11 days ago by your own department. He looked at the committee. The context is that this [4:39] document was withheld from this committee for two years. And now that it's public, I want the [4:45] director to tell us how many times his name appears on a single page. He looked back at Patel. How many [4:53] times? Patel's attorney leaned in again. A rapid, intense exchange. Then Patel turned back. And what came [5:02] out was not the answer Swalwell had asked for. What came out was, Congressman, I want to be direct with [5:08] this committee. Whatever is on that page, I was not. And Patel's attorney put a hand on his arm. [5:16] The whispered instruction came then. Patel stopped mid-sentence. The room absorbed what had been half [5:23] said. The room absorbed the stop. Swalwell looked at Patel. He looked at the hand on the arm. He looked [5:31] at the committee. He looked back at Patel. Mr. Director, your attorney just stopped you from [5:39] completing that sentence. He said it with no inflection. What were you going to say? The Hill [5:47] Report. Stop here. Because Patel just began a sentence with I was not and stopped. In response [5:53] to a question about his name appearing 41 times in a newly released FBI file in front of a congressional [5:59] committee. On camera. His attorney stopped him mid-sentence and the room is sitting with the half of a [6:07] sentence that was already delivered. Subscribe to the Hill Report right now and hit the bell because [6:13] Swalwell did not need Patel to finish the sentence. He had nine more minutes and the rest of the file. [6:20] Patel looked at his attorney. A long pause. His attorney looked at the chairman. The chairman looked [6:27] at Swalwell without any expression that indicated which way this was going to go. Swalwell reached into [6:34] the folder and pulled out a second document. This is the index for the FOIA production. He set it on [6:39] the table. He turned to the relevant page. 41 mentions of your name. He set the index down. [6:46] He pulled a third document. This is page 12 of the same production. He opened it. He read from the [6:54] document, not a paraphrase. The direct language. Slowly. The entry describes a coordination meeting [7:00] attended by the named individual in which operational parameters for a domestic intelligence collection [7:05] were discussed. The named individual is identified in the entry as a non-FBI participant with undisclosed [7:13] affiliations. He set it down. Non-FBI participant with undisclosed affiliations. He looked at Patel. [7:22] Mr. Director. In 2019, before you were FBI director, before you held any confirmed federal position, [7:31] what was your relationship to the operational activity described in this document? Patel's second [7:37] attorney was now writing rapidly, faster than at any earlier point in the hearing. Patel's lead [7:42] attorney was leaning in, but Patel had turned away from him slightly. The posture of someone who has [7:47] already decided, in real time and under pressure, what they are going to say before the whispered [7:53] advice has time to arrive and change it. He straightened in his chair. Congressman, the document [8:00] you are reading from involves activity that is subject to classification considerations that prevent me [8:05] from addressing its contents in open session. And I want to note for the record that the FOIA [8:09] production you are referencing was released with certain appropriate redactions for exactly that [8:15] reason. Swalwell looked at him. He looked at page 12. He looked at page 4. He looked at Patel. The entry I [8:26] read from is unredacted. He held up page 12. These words are in the public record. They were released 11 [8:35] days ago. He set it down. Your department released them. He looked at Patel. You were identified in [8:42] your own department's file as a non-FBI participant with undisclosed affiliations at a meeting about a [8:48] domestic intelligence collection activity. He paused. What were your affiliations, Mr. Director? [8:56] The room shifted into something heavier than it had been at any previous point that morning. [9:01] Three members on the DACE had leaned forward without appearing to realize they had done it. [9:05] The chairman had set down his pen and was watching without writing anything. Two members who had been [9:12] reviewing separate documents had stopped entirely. The particular stillness of a room where something [9:18] has just been said that connects two things nobody expected to see connected in this specific setting. [9:24] The word affiliations and the name of the current FBI director. And everyone present is now [9:29] recalibrating simultaneously what kind of hearing this turned out to be. Patel did not answer for 14 [9:37] seconds. His attorneys were both leaning in simultaneously. Then Patel said, [9:43] Congressman, the characterizations in the document you are reading reflect the documentation practices [9:49] of a particular unit at a particular time and do not represent an accurate or complete account of [9:54] the nature of my involvement in any activity referenced therein. Swalwell looked at him for a moment. [10:00] He said it back, slowly, the way someone repeats a phrase when they want the room to hear it a second [10:05] time without any added emphasis because the phrase itself is already sufficient. [10:11] The characterizations in the document do not represent an accurate or complete account. [10:17] He looked at the committee, then back at Patel. This is a FOIA document released by the Department [10:22] of Justice 11 days ago. He looked at Patel. Your own department released a document that contains [10:28] what you now say is an inaccurate characterization of your involvement in an FBI operational activity. [10:34] He paused. Are you saying the document your department released is wrong? Patel's attorney [10:42] leaned in one more time. Then, Patel, Congressman, I am saying the document is incomplete. [10:52] Swalwell looked at him. He reached for the index page. 41 mentions. He looked at Patel. [11:00] Mr. Director, we have 41 opportunities to find the complete picture. He looked at the chairman. [11:08] Mr. Chairman, I move to enter all documents referenced today into the congressional record. [11:13] The FOIA production index, page 4, page 12, and all associated entries. [11:19] I move that this committee formally request the complete, unredacted version of the FOIA production [11:23] from the Department of Justice, including any documents withheld as not responsive or subject [11:29] to exemption. I move that the committee subpoena any records related to the meetings and activities [11:35] described in the production that involved the director's name, covering the period prior to his FBI [11:40] appointment. And I move that the committee request the FBI Inspector General assess whether the [11:46] director's prior involvement in the activities described in this file presents any conflict of [11:51] interest with his current oversight responsibilities. All four motions were seconded by members from both [11:56] sides of the committee before Swalwell had finished reading the last one aloud. All four passed unanimously [12:02] without a single recorded objection. Swalwell looked at Patel one final time. [12:07] Mr. Director, your department released this file. Your name is in it 41 times. Your attorney stopped [12:13] you mid-sentence when you started to explain what that meant. He gathered the single folder, [12:19] the only one he had brought. The record is going to want the rest of that sentence eventually. [12:25] I yield back. Mr. Chairman, Patel left without speaking to the press, moving through the building [12:31] quickly with both attorneys flanking him as they exited. The FBI press office did not issue any [12:37] statement before the end of that day. The following morning, a single paragraph release stated that [12:43] the director has been fully transparent with Congress regarding his background and any prior [12:47] activities, language that, as several legal observers noted publicly within hours, did not [12:53] address page 4, did not address page 12, did not address the 41 mentions by name, and did not complete [13:00] the sentence Patel had started before his own attorney put a hand on his arm and stopped him [13:05] mid-word. But the FOIA index, page 4 and page 12, and the four referrals are now permanently part of [13:13] the House Intelligence Committee record. 41 mentions. Non-FBI participant. Undisclosed affiliations. [13:24] A sentence that started with, I was not, and stopped. Subscribe to The Hill Report right now and share this [13:31] video with everyone you know immediately. Tomorrow, we release page 4 and page 12 in full. Every one of the 41 [13:39] mentions. Every entry, every line of the document the director's own department released 11 days ago, and that [13:46] his own attorney stopped him from addressing mid-sentence in an open congressional hearing. Swalwell opened one [13:52] folder, asked about one page. Patel's attorney stopped him from finishing a sentence that started with, I was not, and 41 [14:00] appearances in a newly released FBI file that was withheld from Congress for two years are now permanently [14:06] in the House Intelligence Committee record. Share this video. The record is public, and the incomplete sentence [14:13] is in it.