It seems Donald Trump is not the only one in his administration who thinks a personal slush fund is a fine use for taxpayer money. Unlike Trump, FBI Director Kash Patel seems to have already gotten it done.
In a letter to Patel, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said he has received “troubling reports” that Patel “may be” using “tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in unlawful ‘bonus’ payments to loyalist MAGA henchmen who have engaged in misconduct.” That’s according to a letter exclusively obtained by MS Now.
House Judiciary Democrats have information that Patel has already issued more than $1 million to the special agents on Patel’s Director’s Advisory Team, according to Raskin’s letter. He described them as “a curated group of agents who are willing to carry out your unlawful partisan and personal orders.” “Bonuses” also went to agents on Patel’s security detail, “circumventing the mandatory maximum pay caps established by statute,” according to Raskin, via MS Now.
“In some cases, nearly $8,000 payments have been made to multiple individuals every two-week pay period despite many of the beneficiaries of your selective generosity already maxing out on a federal employee’s salary,” Raskin reportedly wrote. At least $40,000 per agent has been doled out, he said he was able to confirm. “We can also confirm you have depleted this reserve at such a frenzied rate that some of the payments have bounced back from exhausted accounts.”
“It is not clear whether these bonus payments have simply been a corrupt attempt to slide cash to friends or whether they are also meant to ensure the silence of the agents who witness your inebriation and accompanying professional negligence and misconduct,” Raskin’s letter also reportedly said.
Raskin has asked the FBI to produce relevant documents. But, as MS Now notes, “minority Democrats have no authority to compel such production, but would gain it next year if they retake the House in the fall, as some political forecasts have predicted.”
Democratic authority or not, Patel should release the documents and explain the reason for his untoward generosity with taxpayers’ money.
However, Patel should have been fired long ago. If Donald Trump and his lickspittles in Congress cared the slightest bit about America’s safety and security, they would never have put the guy in charge of the FBI in the first place.
