Oct. 1, 2025Updated Oct. 2, 2025, 11:21 a.m. ET
FBI Director Kash Patel announced he is ending the bureau’s partnership with the Anti-Defamation League, saying he disliked former FBI Director James Comey‘s approving comments about the Jewish advocacy group.
“James Comey wrote ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them,” Patel alleged in the Oct. 1 post on X. He accused the organization of spying on Americans, without providing specific details.
The Anti-Defamation League, which describes itself as the “leading anti-hate organization in the world” with a mission to stop the defamation of Jewish people and secure justice for all, said in a statement that it has “deep respect for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and law enforcement officers at all levels across the country.”
“In light of an unprecedented surge of antisemitism, we remain more committed than ever to our core purpose to protect the Jewish people,” the league said.
In 2014, in a self-described “love letter” to the league, Comey praised its work on a variety of issues, including anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim prejudice, and terrorist threats.
“Most of the time, domestic extremists are careful to keep their actions within the bounds of constitutionally protected activity,” Comey said while speaking at the league’s National Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, that year.
“You help us police that line. You know all too well that in a heartbeat, hateful speech can become violent, even deadly. Hate becomes hate crime,” he added.
That praise for the organization from someone who has been a target of President Donald Trump since 2017 appears to have hurt it now.
Trump fired then-FBI Director Comey in 2017, as the bureau was investigating the 2016 Trump campaign’s contacts with the Russian government. Recently, Trump said on social media that Comey should be indicted, and that he had replaced a longtime prosecutor who reportedly concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to support a case against Comey.
On Sept. 25, Trump’s former personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan, who has never before prosecuted a case, secured an indictment from a grand jury charging Comey with lying to Congress. Comey said in a video statement that he’s innocent and will fight the charges in court.
The Anti-Defamation League has been criticized by Republicans recently because it included Turning Points USA, the organization founded by recently murdered conservative youth leader Charlie Kirk, in a glossary on extremism. The league removed the entire glossary following backlash, according to Fox News.
The league has been an outspoken critic in recent years of what it describes as “soaring levels of antisemitism and marginalization” on college campuses. That view is echoed by multiple initiatives of the current Trump administration, including a Department of Justice task force “to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
