MS NOW senior investigative reporter Carol Leonnig joined host Nicolle Wallace on Thursday to discuss her latest scoop on FBI Director Kash Patel.

“We have that brand-new reporting breaking moments ago from our colleagues Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian. It’s about the turmoil inside the FBI right now after a string of deeply embarrassing and rather alarming stories about Kash Patel and his tenure as the head of the country’s top law enforcement agency,” Wallace began, adding:

From that new reporting, quote: “Kash Patel has ordered the polygraphing of more than two dozen former and current members of his security detail and other staff and has been described as in panic mode to save his job and find leakers among his team.” That is according to two people briefed on the development.

Kash Patel has walled himself off from some senior bureau leaders this week in the wake of multiple media reports that raised red flags about his leadership. What’s more, Patel reportedly avoided meeting with operational leaders at the FBI this week, raising fears that Patel is out of the loop on important investigations and threats.

A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment about the polygraph test, but he denied that Kash Patel was walled off from senior staff at the FBI. I want to bring in senior investigative reporter Carol Leonnig, who’s bylined on that. Mark and Melissa are still here. Um, Carol Leonnig, it doesn’t sound like someone who’s been defamed, does it?

“Well, I’m not a lawyer. I just play one on TV. But as a reporter, Nicolle, you know, this is a person hunting for leakers pretty actively. And I think you’ve raised this point before, which is a smart one: how do you claim you’re defamed but also hunt for people who released information that you believe may be as sensitive or is somehow protected?” replied Leonnig — a four-time Pulitzer Prize winner. She added:

You know, as we reported at MS NOW a couple—I can’t remember if it was two days ago or a day ago, but it was basically a finding that Patel had ordered this investigation into the leaks or the sources to an Atlantic magazine piece that described how FBI agents were super, super worried about the leadership of the bureau because of Patel allegedly engaging in drinking to excess on a pretty regular basis and having to reschedule meetings in the mornings after these, quote unquote, “alcohol-fueled events.”

We also then learned—because once you report one story, more people want to tell you more about other things that disturb them—we learned that Patel has ordered the polygraph of all of these agents, a very large group who used to travel with him and who travel with him now, to try to find out who may be talking to reporters.

This is sending a real chill through the FBI. But even more worrisome to them, Nicolle, is the way in which Patel has not agreed to meet with lots and lots of other operational leaders in the bureau. This worries people because there’s a regular sort of line of threats and investigations that the bureau director needs to be briefed on and needs some input on, of course. There are some decision points that he must be involved in, and this is worrying them.

I agree that we should emphasize that the FBI spokesperson, Ben Williamson, said that Kash is having meetings with senior leaders, but he wasn’t extremely specific about those he’s not meeting with.

Watch the clip above via MS NOW.

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