In the latest twist of a saga that keeps blurring the line between justice and spectacle, FBI Director Kash Patel fired off a blistering rebuke of MSNBC on Saturday, calling the network an “ass clown factory of disinformation” after one of its legal analysts criticized reports surrounding the agency’s handling of former FBI Director James Comey’s arrest.
Patel’s outburst came in response to MSNBC contributor and former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade, who posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Department of Justice policy prohibits “perp walks” — the public parading of suspects before cameras — in front of the media. Her post was an apparent jab at reports that an FBI agent was relieved of duty after failing to coordinate a media-facing arrest for Comey, who was indicted last month on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation.
The reports suggested that Patel, newly installed as FBI Director, had expected Comey’s arrest to be handled like those of other high-profile defendants — openly, visibly, and by the book. When that didn’t happen, the responsible agent was allegedly dismissed. Patel didn’t confirm the details directly but made it clear he wouldn’t tolerate insubordination.
“MSNBC still an ass clown factory of disinformation,” Patel wrote. “Same circus animals that slobbered all over perp walks of Stone, Navarro, Bannon… MSNBC has no facts and no audience. In this FBI, follow the chain of command or get relieved.”
BREAKING: MSNBC still an ass clown factory of disinformation. Same circus animals that slobbered all over perp walks of Stone, Navarro, Bannon…
MSNBC has no facts and no audience
In this @fbi, follow the chain of command or get relieved. https://t.co/vl0gPLM6vm
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) October 4, 2025
It was a vintage Patel moment — unapologetically combative, media-savvy, and laced with disdain for what he sees as institutional hypocrisy.
And hypocrisy is precisely the point. The same media figures now lamenting the supposed indignity of a “perp walk” for Comey — once the bureau’s own director — had no such objections when conservatives like Roger Stone or Peter Navarro were hauled out of their homes for pre-dawn photo ops. Both men were arrested under circumstances that looked designed for cameras. In Stone’s case, CNN arrived before the FBI. In Navarro’s, the coverage was instantaneous.
Patel’s critics see his rhetoric as inflammatory, unbecoming of the nation’s top law enforcement official. But to his supporters — and to many who’ve watched years of selective outrage from the media establishment — Patel’s comments land as a long-overdue correction. The message: the rules will apply equally now, even to those who once wrote them.
Comey’s indictment on September 25 marks a stunning fall for the man who, for years, embodied the FBI’s self-image as an untouchable pillar of integrity. Charged with lying to Congress and obstructing its investigation into FBI surveillance abuses, he now finds himself at the center of the kind of spectacle he once orchestrated.
Whether or not a “perp walk” ever happens is beside the point. The symbolism of accountability — that no one, not even a former FBI director, is beyond the reach of law — is what Patel and his allies are leaning into.
MSNBC hasn’t responded to Patel’s comments, but in truth, the network doesn’t need to. Its brand of outrage is the same that fueled years of Russiagate coverage and sanctified Comey as a martyr for “truth.” Patel’s broadside, crude as it may sound, taps directly into the fatigue of millions of Americans who see a justice system — and a media ecosystem — with one set of rules for elites and another for everyone else.
