Hours after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, FBI Director Kash Patel said online that “the subject” was in custody. The shooter was not. The two men detained were quickly released, and officials said the gunman remained at large.

The false assurance was more than a slip. It spotlighted the high-stakes uncertainty surrounding Patel’s leadership of the bureau when its credibility — and his own — are under extraordinary pressure.

Patel now approaches congressional oversight hearings this coming week facing not just questions about that investigation but broader doubts about whether he can stabilize a federal law enforcement agency fragmented by political fights and internal upheaval.

Democrats are poised to press Patel on a purge of senior executives that has prompted a lawsuit, his purs

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