FBI Director Kash Patel announced that he will end the bureau’s partnership with the Anti-Defamation League in a move to further distance the FBI from its former director, James Comey, who established the tie between the two organizations.
“James Comey wrote ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them – a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans. That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs,” Patel wrote on X on Wednesday.
Patel was referring to a 2014 ADL National Leadership Summit speech from Comey, in which he said, “If this sounds a bit like a love letter to the ADL, it is, and rightly so.”
The ADL has come under fire this month after conservative activists pointed out that the organization listed Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA on its website’s “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” as a group that platformed extremists and promoted “Christian nationalism.”
After fielding criticism from high-profile conservatives such as Elon Musk, who called the ADL a “far left hate propaganda machine” on X, the organization removed the glossary entirely on Sept. 30. The ADL said it saw “an increasing number of entries in the Glossary were outdated,” in a statement on X regarding the removal.
The ADL, which claims to combat antisemitism, hate, and bias, put out a statement on Wednesday reacting to Patel’s decision to cut the FBI’s ties with the organization.
“ADL has deep respect for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and law enforcement officers at all levels across the country who work tirelessly every single day to protect all Americans regardless of their ancestry, religion, ethnicity, faith, political affiliation or any other point of difference,” the ADL statement said.
Comey has given multiple speeches at ADL summits and established several ties with the organization. The ADL and FBI have partnered to host civil rights and hate crime trainings and sessions on extremism and terrorism, according to Comey’s 2014 speech. The ADL and FBI also worked together to create a hate crimes training manual for the FBI’s law enforcement partners, Comey said.
Patel’s decision to cut ties with the ADL is the latest move in the Trump administration’s saga to distance itself from Comey, a political enemy of President Donald Trump. A federal grand jury indicted Comey in September on counts of making false statements and obstruction of justice. Trump celebrated the indictment as “JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” on Truth Social.
“One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the former Corrupt Head of the FBI,” Trump wrote.
TRUMP SIGNS MEMORANDUM TO DISMANTLE LEFT-WING TERRORIST THREATS
After Comey posted a message reading “8647” in May, the Department of Homeland Security launched an investigation into the former FBI director. The message is often interpreted as a call to kill (86) Trump (47).
The Trump administration is looking into several left-wing groups following the assassination of Kirk. The president signed an executive order in September declaring antifa a domestic terrorist organization.
