Text messages released by the government show FBI Director Kash Patel pressing the bureau's top public affairs official to answer an anonymous X account that had insulted him. Journalist Seth Hettena flagged the exchange on September 10, 2026. It was included in the latest tranche of records released as part of the government's review of materials related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The texts date to February 5, 2026. Patel sent Ben Williamson, the FBI's assistant director for public affairs, a post from an account called “Ifindretards.” The post, since deleted, said Patel's “retard rating just went to all time highs. Congratulations Kash.”
Williamson told him, “This is an 'Epstein didn't kill himself' bot account.” Patel disagreed. “277k responses are not bots,” he wrote, and reminded Williamson of an instruction he said he had already given: “What I asked you and your team to do is find them, and post our record year results back at them all, continuously.” He asked whether they had “been doing that.”
Williamson corrected the numbers (“That's views - it's 400 responses; a real visible tweet gets 5x that”) and said the bureau was not going to respond to the account. “That would look bad on you,” he wrote. Patel answered, “it's not about them, it is about the number of views, because people see it and need to be seeing our stats.”
The Daily Caller reported that the records “appear to reveal” Patel made tracking down his critics a priority. The Telegraph, The New Republic and Mediaite also covered the texts. The FBI told the Daily Caller it had no comment.
What the records show is specific. The FBI director told the bureau's press office to find accounts criticizing him and answer them with agency statistics, and the official running that office pushed back. The texts do not show any investigative or enforcement action against the account (see Trump Appoints Kash Patel, Whose Book Lists 60 'Enemies' to Target, as FBI Director).