Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump‘s selection to lead the FBI, was blamed for an incident that threatened to jeopardize a U.S. SEAL Team 6 rescue mission in Nigeria during Trump’s first administration.
Patel served in several positions during Trump’s first term in office, quickly rising through the ranks of the Department of Defense and the National Security Council. However, the narrative that follows him most closely is his loyalty to Trump.
The incident in question occurred in late October 2020 when an American named Philipe Nathan Walton was kidnapped from his farm in southern Niger and brought to Nigeria. The armed kidnappers demanded a ransom, and U.S. officials were concerned that they could kill Walton or hand him over to an Islamic terrorist group.
Then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper detailed the incident in his memoir about his time in the first Trump administration. He describes a tangled web of incomplete information being relayed to various agencies that should have been involved, directly or indirectly, in the planning and execution of the rescue mission.
FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom Trump nominated Patel to replace, and then-Attorney General William Barr were not informed of the impending mission, despite Trump’s approval of it, until Esper informed them of the plans himself. Then-CIA Director Gina Haspel “knew the most of what we were planning … however, she was not aware the president decided to launch the rescue operation,” he wrote.
The United States was awaiting approval from the Nigerian government to enter its airspace and carry out the raid. Patel, who was at the NSC, reportedly informed Tony Tata, acting principal deputy undersecretary for policy, that they had gotten the requisite approval for the mission. However, hours later, with the U.S. forces only 15 miles from the border, Esper found out they did not, in fact, have the Nigerians’ approval.
He and Gen. Mark Milley, the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, decided to have the U.S. military aircraft circle in approved airspace until they received the green light.
“My staff told me that, upon hearing this news, Tata called Patel back and engaged in a heated conversation with him over the NSC staffer’s bad report,” Esper wrote in his book, while the Atlantic reported that Tata shouted at him, “You could’ve gotten these guys killed!” adding, “What the f*** were you thinking?”
Patel is said to have responded, “If nobody got hurt, who the f*** cares?”
Esper notes that his team “suspected Patel made the approval story up.”
A spokesperson for Patel denied to the outlet at the time that he uttered the above statement or made up the approval story, adding that he followed the chain of command in every situation. Trump’s transition team did not return a Washington Examiner request for comment.
With the window to carry out the operation quickly evaporating, Esper, Milley, and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo got on the phone with Trump to discuss the mission and its viability given the setback, when Pompeo’s deputy, Stephen Biegun, joined the call to confirm that they had been given the green light by the Nigerians.
The U.S. forces in the air ultimately conducted the raid, freed Walton, and killed all of the kidnappers but one. The mission was a success, but the miscommunication threatened the mission, the U.S. service members involved, and Walton himself.
The incident has gained renewed attention given Trump’s selection of Patel to lead the FBI.
Patel created a list of government officials, current and former, whom he believes should be targeted for prosecution in his 2023 book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy.
Esper, Haspel, Barr, and Wray are among the dozens of officials Patel identified. During Trump’s first term, he considered naming Patel the deputy director of the FBI, to which Barr reportedly told the White House “over my dead body.”
Trump, in announcing his decision to nominate Patel to lead the FBI, praised his work during his first administration.
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“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American people,” the president-elect said. “Kash did an incredible job during my First Term, where he served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense, Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council.”
It’s unclear if Patel will garner the GOP support he needs to get confirmed as Wray’s replacement. Trump nominated Wray to lead the FBI during his first term, and each term lasts 10 years, though the implication from the president-elect’s decision is he will fire Wray.