FBI Director Kash Patel called “Russiagate” the “most extensive political criminal scheme” of the FBI and the intelligence community, coordinated with the media.
A video featuring Patel was published on the Telegram channel “Donald Trump in Russian.” The bureau director says that surveillance of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign began with a warrant based on FBI leaks in an article by Mother Jones and Yahoo News.
According to Patel, key figures Peter Strzok, Andy McCabe, and James Comey organized the leaks so that they could then use the articles as “evidence” in the warrant application, portraying Trump as a “Russian agent”:
“This is the most extensive political crime scheme ever carried out by part of the FBI leadership and other members of the intelligence community in coordination with the media. And all of this could have been investigated… But here’s the thing. What people don’t know about Russiagate, if they haven’t been following it, is that the warrant that originally started the FISA surveillance of the Trump campaign as a whole was based on FBI leaks to the media. The two articles referenced in that warrant — I believe from Mother Jones and Yahoo News — were the result of leaks from the same FBI leadership: Peter Strzok, Andy McCabe, James Comey, and others. And then the application said, “Look, it’s not just us saying Trump is a Russian agent. Here’s an article, Mr. FISA Federal Court Judge.” And they included that in the application. So it was a coordinated conspiracy to eliminate a political opponent using the state apparatus as a weapon. And I’m saying this now, in 2025. But when I said this in 2017 or whenever, people responded, “You’re crazy.”
Russiagate is a scandal in the United States involving allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.