Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, confirmed 2025.
Case
Michigan gubernatorial candidate John James said FBI Director Kash Patel privately told him the FBI would have a presence in Michigan before Election Day. Questioned at a Senate hearing, Patel neither confirmed nor denied it.
Role at the time: FBI Director
Statement summary
Kash Patel declined to give Sen. Peter Welch a direct pledge against FBI election interference, calling the request "a charade of lies."
“When did you hear that? It’s just another lie... I have pledged unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies.”
When Welch asked Patel to "pledge that you will not in any way interfere in the will of the American people when they go to the polls," Patel did not answer yes or no. Instead he called the question "just another lie" and said he had "pledged unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies" — refusing to give the requested pledge rather than answering it.
Role at the time: FBI Director
Response to this claim
Kash Patel privately told John James that the FBI will have a presence leading up to Election Day in Michigan, in both West Michigan and Southeast Michigan.
“We have an election crimes community coordinator in all 56 field offices, so you bet we’re going to have them there and manning the posts for election interference matters.”
Patel neither confirms nor denies James’s specific claim about a Michigan presence; he recharacterizes the matter as standing "election crimes community coordinators" present in all 56 field offices for "election interference matters," rather than a new or targeted deployment. This disputes the framing of James’s claim without a clear affirmation or denial — flagged as a genuinely close call for editorial review, since his answer could also be read as an implicit confirmation.
Statement dates: September 15, 2026
