Keystone Kash Called Out for Juicing Arrest Numbers in Stunning Leak
The FBI director’s arrest figures have been slammed as “bogus.”
FBI Director Kash Patel has been accused of “padding the stats” to inflate his arrest accolades at the bureau.
Law enforcement sources told MS Now that Mr. Patel’s boast—that he nearly doubled the number of arrests, a claim he highlighted during his heated testimony before senators this week—would not have been possible without a change in the method used to count arrests.
Internal sources indicate that the FBI now includes thousands of arrests involving migrants in its statistics—specifically cases where Bureau agents accompanied Department of Homeland Security agents during joint operations in Minnesota and other targeted areas. According to MS Now, the Bureau did not previously count these arrests in its statistics.
“They are clearly inflating the numbers, claiming credit for arrests they wouldn’t have reported in the past,” a current FBI official told MS Now. “Consequently, comparing 2025 to 2024 is not a fair comparison.”
Another source within the FBI asserted that the “fudged” arrest figures presented by Mr. Patel are a recurring source of complaints among agents.
“Kash is definitely engineering things to pad his stats,” the former FBI official told the network.
The FBI did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on these allegations. Bureau spokesperson Ben Williamson told MS Now: “These allegations, which aim to tarnish the reputation of law enforcement, are completely baseless and constitute nothing more than another attempt to obscure the successes of this Bureau and this Administration—successes that have led to the recording, this year, of the sharpest decline in crime rates in U.S. history.”
Among the successes of which Mr. Patel also takes pride is the apprehension of several individuals featured on the Bureau’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list. During his testimony on Tuesday, he stated: “We have apprehended eight of the ten most dangerous fugitives in the world within the span of 14 months.”
This figure, however, has itself been characterized as the result of behind-the-scenes manipulation.
MS Now reports that “the FBI accelerated the pace of arrests” on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, partly by adding several names to it at the last minute. Of the eight fugitives highlighted by Patel before lawmakers, only two were actually on the wanted list when President Donald Trump took office in January 2025.
The outlet further reported that two of these fugitives had been added to the list less than 24 hours before their arrest.
The case of Samuel Ramirez Jr.—charged with two counts of murder—stands as the most striking example of this practice. He was apprehended in Culiacán, Mexico, in March—barely one hour and 13 minutes after being placed on the wanted list—according to the MS Now report.
Williamson also criticized the questions raised regarding the changes made to the FBI’s wanted list.
He told MS Now: “If the media would like to make light of or discredit capturing some of the most violent and dangerous criminals in the world, then that is certainly a choice,”
On X, Williamson shared a graphic illustrating a 20% drop in violent crime during Trump’s second term, alongside a 184% increase in arrests related to violent offenses.
He added: “Thank you to MS Now for including, in the headline of its article, a photo of Director Patel holding this graphic. Here it is, so that everyone can see for themselves the historic decline in crime rates—across the board—under this administration.”
While Patel touted his arrest figures before lawmakers, the aspect of his testimony on Tuesday that garnered the most attention concerned his drinking habits.
Patel stated under oath that he “categorically and unequivocally” refuted allegations regarding excessive alcohol consumption—claims that appeared in a sensationalist article published by The Atlantic—and agreed to undergo an AUDIT screening to demonstrate the falsity of these allegations. On Wednesday, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen made public the results of his own personal alcohol consumption assessment and challenged Patel to follow suit.
“Yesterday, FBI Director Kash told me that he would undergo an AUDIT alcohol screening if I did so myself,” Van Hollen wrote on X. “Well, here are my results. Given all the lies he told yesterday, I expect him to manipulate the numbers in this instance as well; but let’s see your results, Director Patel.”
Patel offered no immediate response to Van Hollen.
