Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter on Tuesday to FBI Director Kash Patel, demanding answers regarding allegations he’s using a “slush fund” to pay out allies.

“We have been receiving troubling reports that you may be using part of the budget of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a personal slush fund to make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in unlawful ‘bonus’ payments to loyalist MAGA henchmen who have engaged in misconduct,” begins the letter, adding:

We write to find out precisely how much slush fund largess you have put on the American taxpayer’s tab. According to information received by the House Committee on the Judiciary, your office has issued more than $1 million in awards to special agents serving on your “Director’s Advisory Team” —a curated group of agents who are willing to carry out your unlawful partisan and personal orders—and special agents on your security detail, circumventing the mandatory maximum pay caps established by statute.

Raskin goes on to suggest that Patel’s payouts may be illegal.

“By issuing these side payments, your office may be knowingly breaking federal law. In some cases, nearly $8,000 payments have been made to multiple individuals every two-week pay period despite many of the beneficiaries of your selective generosity already maxing out on a federal employee’s salary,” the letter continued.

Raskin added that he was uncertain as to exactly how many of Patel’s loyalists had received the bonuses, adding, however, “we can confirm that numerous loyalist employees have received at least five such payments in consecutive pay periods, amounting to nearly $40,000 per agent. We can also confirm you have depleted this reserve at such a frenzied rate that some of the payments have bounced back from exhausted accounts.”

Read the full letter here.

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