FBI insider raises concerns about Kash Patel's role in hostage rescue
CBSN
Days before this week's high-stakes confirmation hearing of Kash Patel to be FBI director, a bureau insider has come forward with new information questioning Patel's judgment during sensitive hostage rescue missions, CBS News has learned.
The whistleblower, whose identity is being withheld by Senate Democrats for fear of retaliation, worked with the FBI's Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, which leads the government's missions to rescue hostages overseas. He alleges that Patel violated firmly entrenched protocols to keep such operations under wraps until the captives are safely in U.S. hands and their families have been notified.
In a letter obtained by CBS News, Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote that Patel, while serving on the National Security Council during the first Trump term, "broke protocol regarding hostage rescues by publicly commenting without authorization on the then-in-progress retrieval of two Americans held captive by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen in October 2020."
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