Senate Democrats have obtained a whistleblower report claiming that President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, violated protocol during a hostage rescue mission in October 2020.
But national security officials who served in the first Trump administration pushed back on that narrative.
The whistleblower letter, obtained by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., claimed that Patel leaked news that two Americans and the remains of a third were being transferred to U.S. custody from Yemen, where they had been held hostage by Houthi rebels. The whistleblower claims Patel leaked news of the trade to the Wall Street Journal hours before the hostages were actually in U.S. custody, potentially endangering the deal.
The protocol of the multi-agency group in charge of the mission was to withhold information about hostage deals until the subjects were both in U.S. custody and their families had been notified, according to the whistleblower.
A transition official pushed back on the report in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, saying Patel has a "track record of success."
"Mr. Patel was a public defender, decorated prosecutor, and accomplished national security official that kept Americans safe," the official said. "He has a track record of success in every branch of government, from the court room to congressional hearing room to the situation room. There is no veracity to this anonymous source's complaints about protocol."
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