FBI Director Kash Patel pushed back on a New York Times report that the FBI investigated one of its reporters after she wrote a story about Patel’s girlfriend, accusing the “baseless” paper of running a false story — all as press freedom groups sound alarms over apparent retribution against the press.
Patel told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday that it was “absolutely false” that he used the FBI to investigate Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson over a Feb. 28 story on Patel’s approval of government security and travel for his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins. He claimed the “baseless” story led someone to threaten his girlfriend’s life.
“We are going to protect not only me and my loved ones, but every American that is threatened,” Patel said. “The baseless New York Times came in over the top today and tried to delete that past reporting, refused to accept our comments and refused to turn the attention to the actual court pleadings and the myriad of threats that have resulted to me and mine based on this baseless reporting.”
“The Times’s reporting brings important and concerning facts to public light, and we are confident in the accuracy of our article,” a Times spokesperson told TheWrap on Thursday.
Executive editor Joe Kahn told his paper on Wednesday the investigation was “a blatant violation of Elizabeth’s First Amendment rights and another attempt by this administration to prevent journalists from scrutinizing its actions.”
The paper’s Wednesday report did not claim Patel himself ordered the agency to investigate Williamson. It said agents dug into databases for information on the reporter after Wilkins said in an interview with FBI agents that Williamson’s actions left her feeling harassed, and that agents wanted the bureau to continue the investigation to see whether the Times reporter violated federal stalking statutes. The Justice Department eventually ended the inquiry, with some officials reportedly seeing “the inquiry as retaliation,” according to the paper.
Patel’s comments on the Times followed him suing the Atlantic earlier this week for $250 million over a story chronicling alleged excessive drinking and concerns about his performance on the job.
Press freedom groups took aim at Patel and the agency following the Times report on Wednesday.
“You know the FBI is off the rails if even lawyers in Trump’s Department of Justice had to warn them that their retaliatory investigation lacked legal merit,” said Seth Stern, the Freedom of the Press Foundation’s chief of advocacy, in a statement. “It’s outrageous that a sober-minded FBI would even consider a theory that reporting methods like phone calls and emails might constitute stalking. That would be offensive even if the case didn’t involve the FBI’s own director.”
Reporters Without Borders characterized the agents’ actions as a form of desperation over a story that embarrassed Patel.
“This ongoing, un-American harassment of journalists eerily echoes the Bureau’s darkest days,” the organization said. “It’s time for Patel to cash out and resign.”