Washington, October 18, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
FBI Director Kash Patel has demanded “three apologies” from US news network MS NOW over a retracted report claiming he had landed in Russia, as an FBI official said the bureau was “always hunting leakers”. Separately, a dispute over the FBI’s crime statistics continued to simmer.
“MS NOW put me in Russia based on two anonymous sources. I was in Virginia, honoring law enforcement at Liberty University. The network had to correct its false report,” Patel wrote on X.
“Three apologies are owed: to this FBI, to the law enforcement community, and to the American People,” he added.
An FBI official told Fox News Digital that the two individuals who leaked the information would “likely” be identified, adding: “We are always hunting leakers.”
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On October 14, MS NOW correspondent Ken Dilanian reported, citing two sources, that Patel had landed in Russia. However, Patel was in Lynchburg, Virginia, with Republican Congressman John McGuire at the time. Dilanian corrected the report on air about two hours later.
“The timing of any potential trip remains unclear. Again, we regret this error, and we are transparent about when we make errors,” Dilanian said.
Earlier on October 14, MS NOW had published an analysis of Justice Department data that questioned Patel’s claim of a 90 per cent increase in violent crime arrests. The network said the figure was “inflated by including arrests that state and local police forces and other federal agencies have made when an FBI employee is present”.
The report also said the FBI had referred 15 per cent fewer criminal cases for federal prosecution than during the corresponding period of the Biden administration.
Patel responded on X, defending the figures cited by the bureau.
“The data is collected by the field and our partners – not from me – and whether you like it or not the FBI had a 90% increase in violent crime arrests from the previous 18 months,” he wrote.
FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia also criticised the network’s coverage, writing that “this headline is an insult to law enforcement across the country and especially to the FBI”.
“The process behind how we collect these statistics has remained the same year after year,” Raia added.
Dilanian defended the report on X, writing that “no one at the FBI or anywhere else has disputed the DOJ data showing FBI criminal referrals down 15%”, according to Deadline.
Meanwhile, the FBI announced this week that its Summer Heat 2.0 initiative, conducted with state and local law enforcement partners from June 1 to September 20, had resulted in 8,927 arrests.
Of those, “more than 5,900 arrests fell under the FBI’s violent crime and gang program,” the bureau said. However, the announcement did not specify how many arrests were made by FBI agents and how many by partner agencies.
Patel, who is of Indian origin, has served as FBI director since February 2025.
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