Newly released internal FBI messages reveal Director Kash Patel instructed his public affairs team to use the bureau's official social media account to push back against anonymous online critics, a directive his own communications chief warned would backfire.

The messages, published by the FBI as part of a transparency effort tied to its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, show Patel forwarding a post from an anonymous X account to Ben Williamson, the FBI's assistant director for public affairs, and pressing him to respond publicly with bureau statistics. Williamson told Patel bluntly: "That would look bad on you."

Patel was not deterred. In the exchange, which took place in February 2025, the same month he took the helm at the FBI, Patel told Williamson he wanted the team to seek out critical posts and fire back from the bureau's official account using crime statistics and operational results.

"What I asked you and your team to do is find them, and post our record year results back at them all, continuously."

The post that triggered the exchange came from an account called "Retard Finder," operating under the handle @ifindretards. It featured a picture of Patel and a caption mocking him. Williamson assessed the post had drawn only about 400 responses and appeared to come from a bot account promoting conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein. Patel, however, fixated on the post's view count, writing that "people see it and need to be seeing our stats."

The FBI declined to comment on the messages.

Patel's social media habits have drawn scrutiny before

The internal exchange landed at a moment when Patel was already facing questions about his public communications. During the investigation into the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Patel posted on X that "the subject" was "in custody", hours after Kirk's death. That claim proved false; the shooter was still at large. President Trump nonetheless defended Patel, saying he had "done a great job."

In December 2025, Patel publicly named a person of interest in a shooting near Brown University. That individual was released hours later. The pattern, a rush to claim credit or project control before facts are settled, has become a recurring concern among both critics and allies of the director.

Conservative strategist Christopher Rufo posted on X: "It's time for Republicans to assess whether Kash Patel is the right man to run the FBI." That kind of criticism from the right is notable. It suggests the frustration is not merely partisan but rooted in questions about operational judgment.

Epstein files disclosure surfaced the messages

The internal messages came to light not through a leak but through the FBI's own transparency initiative related to the Epstein files. The Trump administration had pledged to release the files of the late billionaire sex offender, and Patel said in a February interview that the administration had released as many as it "legally and lawfully could." But an estimated 2.5 million to 3 million documents remained unpublished at the time, and Patel was facing scrutiny over missing documents from the files.

It was against that backdrop, with questions swirling about whether the FBI was fully cooperating with the disclosure, that Patel chose to focus his energy on an anonymous bot account with a few hundred interactions.

Williamson, to his credit, pushed back. His four-word reply, "That would look bad on you", reads as the kind of frank counsel a director needs from his communications staff. Whether Patel heeded that advice is not clear from the released messages.

A $250 million lawsuit and taxpayer-funded travel add to the noise

Patel's sensitivity to media criticism extends well beyond anonymous X accounts. In April, he filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Atlantic in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging the magazine published false claims about what it described as his "erratic" behavior and alleged heavy drinking. The case remains pending.

Separately, reports surfaced in November 2025 that Patel used taxpayer-funded jets to attend performances by his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, a 27-year-old country music singer. That revelation carried a particular sting: in 2023, before becoming director, Patel had used his podcast to criticize former FBI Director Christopher Wray for what he called using "taxpayer dollars to hop around the country" on private jet travel. The parallel is difficult to miss.

Patel, now 46, has framed his tenure as a return to basics. In May, he issued a statement laying out his vision for the bureau.

"The FBI's priorities are to crush violent crime, defend the homeland, rebuild public trust, and ensure fierce organisational accountability."

That pledge, particularly the part about rebuilding public trust, sits uneasily alongside the image of a director ordering subordinates to clap back at anonymous social media trolls from an official government account. Accountability and thin skin do not pair well.

Trump has stood by Patel through the turbulence, saying he was "very proud of the FBI" under Patel's leadership. And the bureau has posted operational results that Patel points to with pride, including what he has described as a major counterintelligence push and a broader reorientation toward street crime and immigration enforcement.

But results on the ground do not erase questions about judgment at the top. Congressional oversight hearings are now in the mix, with lawmakers examining Patel's handling of the Kirk investigation and broader personnel decisions at the bureau, including a purge of senior executives that prompted a lawsuit alleging the firings amounted to a retribution campaign.

Patel has pushed back against reports questioning his standing with the White House, and his allies argue the scrutiny is driven by entrenched bureaucrats and hostile media. Some of that is surely true. Washington has never welcomed an outsider who promises to shake things up.

Still, the released messages tell a specific story: a new FBI director, weeks into the job, forwarding a low-engagement post from an anonymous bot account and ordering his staff to engage. His own communications chief told him it was a bad idea. Whether Patel listened matters less than what the impulse reveals.

The FBI director's job is to run the most powerful domestic law enforcement agency in the world, not to settle scores on social media. Conservatives who fought for years to reform the bureau deserve a director who keeps his eyes on the mission, not the mentions.