FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau has identified funding streams tied to individuals associated with Antifa activity during an appearance on Dan Bongino’s podcast. Patel reminded Bongino that the two had “launched a serious investigation” when the podcaster was serving in government last year.
“We had said these organizations don’t operate alone, don’t operate in silence. They operate with a heavy, heavy stream of funding,” Patel said. “And we started looking into it. And guess what, Dan? We found them.”
Patel confirmed the FBI is investigating funding connected to left-wing activism.
“This FBI, thanks to what we stood up over the last year, has made significant headway under the NSPM 7 process in looking at those who funded these streams,” Patel said. He added that the bureau is “starting to arrest people who used their funds to incite violence in the guise of a peaceful political protest.”
The White House issued NSPM 7 in September, directing federal law enforcement to investigate ideologies described as anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity as potential sources of political violence.
Patel referenced what he described as the Prairieland prosecution, which he called the Trump administration’s first terrorism case against individuals it has deemed members of Antifa.
Prosecutors allege that members of an Antifa cell in North Texas staged a demonstration outside an ICE detention facility that left a police officer wounded.
Patel said there have been more than two dozen federal arrests connected to the case.
Sixteen people have been charged in federal court in connection with the incident.
The trial was scheduled to begin this week, but U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman declared a mistrial during jury selection.
Patel compared the case to the Cop City prosecution in Georgia, where state prosecutors filed a RICO indictment against activists protesting the construction of a police training center.
A judge dismissed the RICO charges in that case in December.
Patel said the FBI had to “rearrest everybody” because of what he described as errors in the state investigation, though he did not specify what actions he was referencing.
He said federal law enforcement is pursuing not only foreign threats, “but those who cause violence here in America and use the guise of politics to mask that violence.”
This month, Patel highlighted what he described as a record-setting first year at the helm of the bureau during an appearance on Fox News last week, citing major gains in capturing fugitives from the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.
Patel appeared on “Hannity” after host Sean Hannity noted that the FBI has apprehended six of its Ten Most Wanted fugitives in just one year. Hannity compared this performance to the previous administration’s record of only capturing four fugitives from the list in four years.
Patel said the difference reflects a fundamental change in how the bureau operates.
“The simple juxtaposition is that there was a weaponized bureau, a politicized bureau to go after political targets, including President Trump and myself, versus the bureau of today that goes based on law and facts and works with our prosecutors,” Patel said.
He said the FBI has placed approximately 1,000 additional agents into the field to focus on violent crime and fugitive apprehension.
“These agents are working around the clock and around the world to bring justice,” Patel said.
“That is why you see these record numbers. Six top 10 captures in one year, which has never been done before, and we’re just getting started,” he added.