Kash Patel’s response to Charlie Kirk killing in Utah was ‘not very good,’ FBI sources say in report

Hours after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed during an appearance at Utah Valley University in Orem, FBI Director Kash Patel told the world: “The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody.”

But the attorney appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the bureau posted a correction less than two hours later, saying that person had been released. The alleged shooter was not arrested until more than 24 hours after that post.

Within a week, Patel faced questions on his handling of the incident during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. A report submitted by “a national alliance of retired and active-duty FBI agents and analysts” to that body and the House Judiciary Committee, and leaked to the New York Post this week, raises more concerns about Patel’s approach to the Kirk slaying investigation.

The Utah anecdotes in the 115-page report were relayed by two FBI veterans who each spoke with separate agents who had ties to the Kirk case.

One agent was described as someone who has worked in the bureau for multiple decades. The second, who the report described as a Trump supporter, is also “a highly decorated, respected leader with extensive experience conducting a wide variety of complex criminal and national security investigations, including investigations conducted overseas.”

Utah’s only member of Congress on either of the judiciary committees is Sen. Mike Lee. His office did not respond to multiple questions about whether the senator read the November report, his opinions on it and if he has discussed the case with agents from the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office.

The Republican majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee has not released any statements on the report.

Ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., however, wrote, “This stark assessment of the damage Kash Patel has done to the nation’s leading law enforcement agency cries out for one—just one—Republican Senator to break the ranks of silence and demand that Kash Patel be held accountable for his mismanagement of the FBI."

Since the report’s release earlier this week, Patel has given interviews to multiple right-leaning media outlets, denying many of its claims.

In a post on the social media platform X with a clip from an appearance on Fox News, Patel said, “Fake news can spread false stories from anonymous sources about me and a jacket all they want — when they come for you it only means you’re hitting the target. Pound sand. Mission and results are the only things that matter and @FBI team is crushing it."

Delayed by a missing FBI raid jacket

According to one FBI agent, when Patel arrived at the Provo Airport in Utah the day after Kirk was shot — and the suspected shooter was still at large — the director would not disembark from his plane without an FBI raid jacket. Patel did not have his own jacket with him.

“Many FBI Special Agents (and other FBI personnel) were busy working in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and … FBI personnel had to (stop and) ask around to find an FBI raid jacked — a medium-sized one — that would fit FBI Director Kash Patel,” the report says.

There were reportedly “many large and extra-large FBI raid jackets available” that were not suitable for the director. Ultimately, agents “finally found” a medium-sized jacket belonging to a female FBI Special Agent that Patel could borrow.

Patel noticed that jacket, though, did not have Velcro patches on the upper sleeves, and allegedly demanded patches be added before he left the plane. The report says members of an FBI SWAT team “took patches off their uniforms and ran those patches over to FBI Director Kash Patel at the airport.”

Patel has repeatedly characterized the episode as “100% false.”

Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote of the incident in his statement, “America deserves better than this self-absorbed FBI Director fussing over his wardrobe in the midst of a national crisis.”

‘Expletive-laden tirade’

Prior to Patel’s arrival in Utah, one agent said he “was not happy with how the FBI investigation was going and the information he (the FBI Director) was receiving.”

That agent reported Patel called Salt Lake City’s special agent in charge Robert Bohls, yelled, and asked if he needed to travel to Utah to run the investigation.

The report says Patel at one point went on an “expletive-laden tirade ... regarding perceived blunders” in the Kirk shooting investigation when speaking with Bohls. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino reportedly later called Bohls to apologize, “saying that never should have happened.”

‘Motivated by his desire to draw attention’

Both sources who discussed Patel’s performance during the Kirk shooting investigation commented on local agents’ negative impression of the director following his time in Utah.

The agent that expressed support for Trump described Patel as “not very good.”

That source, according to the report, “likes FBI Director Kash Patel’s aggressiveness (i.e., how the Director pushes back against critics to move the FBI in a new direction), but … said Director Patel strikes him/her as ‘odd,’ adding that he/she believes Director Patel’s performance to date in his role as the leader of the FBI is ‘concerning.’”

The agent said Patel appears to lack self-confidence, pointing to his presence at a news conference where the director stood alongside Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. The source observed “the Director’s eyes darting around the room,” saying he looked “uneasy.”

“[The source] said he/she believes former FBI Director James B. Comey made some bad decisions and was not good for the FBI, but even former Director Comey … appeared to possess the kind of demeanor and FBI Director should have, which FBI Director Kash Patel does not,” the report says.

They also believe Patel is inexperienced, according to the report, and cited the director’s communication with the public in the wake of Kirk’s killing, saying he revealed too much about evidence collected during the investigation. Patel’s actions “strayed from ... proper protocol,” the report said, with the source adding that Patel “should know better” because of his background as an attorney.

“Patel may have been motivated by his desire to draw attention to himself or by his desire to glorify his performance as FBI Director,” the agent speculated in the report.

When Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray announced charges against suspected shooter Tyler Robinson, a reporter asked why his office was more measured than federal officials in distributing information about the case. Gray responded, “As attorneys, we typically like to control that information to preserve an impartial jury and a fair trial.”

The source later agreed that “Patel may have been selected above all else for his loyalty to the President and not necessarily because Director Patel checked all the boxes required for anyone to effectively serve as the leader of the FBI.”

The second agent who was cited as a source in the report said Patel seemed to take undue credit “for the good work by other agencies” in the case.

“Patel seemed to imply the results achieved in the investigation would not have been possible without his (the Director’s) involvement,” the report said.

When Patel spoke at a news conference announcing Robinson’s arrest two days after the shooting, he stood in front of cameras and addressed FBI employees, saying, “You have done monumental work in historic time when the public, who had a right to demand such an expeditious solving of an investigation — the FBI answered that call diligently. [It was] critically important to our nation, and we delivered. And I’m proud to be their leader, and I’m proud to be the director of the FBI."

Salt Lake Tribune reporter Robert Gehrke contributed to this story.