By Molly Claire Goddard
3:18am PDT, May 23, 2025
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James Comey has some choice words for the man in his former job.
During a Tuesday, May 20, appearance on CNN's
Anderson Cooper 360, the former FBI director slammed the current chief of the department,
Kash Patel, after reports surfaced
Donald Trump's staffer was skipping essential briefings.
Keep reading to hear what Comey said about how Patel is doing in his old position…MORE:
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When the show's guest host,
John Berman, asked James Comey about the allegations that Kash Patel isn't adequately performing the duties of
FBI director, the lawyer did not hold back exactly how he felt about the new incumbent.
"I'm not the least bit concerned about that, given that nothing in his life will have prepared him to be FBI director," Comey remarked about Patel. "I'm fine if he is out doing other things and letting the career people make the decisions about operations, about priorities that would be better for everybody."
"Do you think the career people are making the decisions behind the scenes?" Berman questioned.
"It's hard for me to say. I mean, I'm sure they are because they know what they're doing," the former republican added. "So, if you're going to go from being an outsider who knows nothing about the institution to the inside, you're going to have to rely on the career people."
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John Berman also pressed James Comey about the allegation that Kash Patel and Donald Trump's administration deported migrants to South Sudan against a
federal judge's order. "What do you see here? Do you see prosecutors willing to push the envelope more?" the host asked.
"I can't tell. There's certainly a lot of aggressive rhetoric in that way, but it is suicidal from a career perspective, for a lawyer for the United States Department of Justice to violate — knowingly violate a court order," Comey explained. "There will be consequences that will be life changing for that lawyer. So, I don't know whether we've moved from a lot of aggressive talk, which is characteristic of the Trump world to lawyers actually making that life changing decision."
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Per numerous sources close to Donald Trump's White House, members of the FBI have been perplexed by how often Kash Patel has been skipping out on their daily "director's brief" meetings or showing up way past their start time.
"Officials who worked on the morning director's briefings were told that the schedule was changed
because Patel sometimes failed to arrive on time,"
Ken Dilanian of
NBC News claimed.
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While Kash Patel may be putting the Washington, D.C., rumor mill into overdrive with his job performance, he recently blamed former FBI leaders like James Comey for conducting the agency with political bias that he claims he and Donald Trump have to fix.
"You're about to see a wave of transparency," Patel explained during a Sunday, May 18, appearance on
Maria Bartiromo's
Fox News show.
"You asked in the beginning how the FBI was weaponized," he said. "Well, the FBI hijacked the constitutional responsibility of the Department of Justice and the Attorney General and James Comey and others specifically decided what cases to prosecute and not prosecute. Don't believe me? Go to the videotape in the
Hillary Clinton investigation."
