Twice now, someone close to Kash Patel has seeded stories (both of which quote Kash’s spox, Ben Williamson, making bullshit claims about subpoenas) with Jana Winter that mischaracterize details of investigative actions against the current FBI Director. Last month, Winter claimed that it was new news that DOJ obtained call records of Patel and Susie Wiles — even though the indictment itself cited details of communications involving Wiles. Then, hours before Chuck Grassley released these records, she had an “exclusive” reporting that “FBI investigation into Kash Patel was more extensive than previously reported,” which made a big fucking deal about the fact that DOJ had obtained two subpoenas targeting Kash.
Neither of these stories mentioned that Kash testified under oath, on September 16 of last year, that his grand jury transcript had been publicly released, one of at least three egregious lies Kash has told congressional committees (another being his assurances that he would not look backward to investigate Jim Comey, and several more pertaining to how pervasive Trump’s actions are in the Epstein files).
We can confirm that pursuant to my action, that that grand jury testimony has been released — the transcript […] publicly.
I mean, cmon. The story remains that the FBI Director said he might go to prison if he testified without immunity because of the false claims he told about Trump declassifying the documents he stole (Winter mentions little of that when describing Kash’s testimony), and then he subsequently lied under oath about releasing that transcript.
As for the subpoenas, Winter didn’t get at the most interesting details.
The first subpoena, which targeted Kash (if we can believe the redacted documents) and eight other people, was dated November 23, 2022 (so a number of weeks after his grand jury testimony earlier in November). It asked for subscriber records, call records, and text messages.
- Names (including subscriber names, user names, and screen names);
- Addresses (including mailing addresses, service addresses, residential addresses, business addresses, and e-mail addresses);
- Local and long distance telephone connection records (including records of text messages sent and received);
- Records of session times and durations,
- Length of service (including start date) and types of service utilized;
- Telephone or instrument numbers (including model type/numbers, phone numbers, IMSIs, IMEIs, MEIDs, UDIDs, MAC addresses, and advertising IDs);
- Other subscriber numbers or identities, including any temporarily assigned network addresses (including the registration and session IP addresses with associated port numbers), and
- Means and source of payment for such service (including any credit card or bank account number)
The time period — January 1, 2021 to present — would have covered the days in January 2021 when Mark Meadows was packaging up the Russian binder, as well as the shenanigans that Kash and John Solomon were engaged in after the investigation into Trump first became public. Prosecutors had to know details of these conversations to check the story Kash told.
The second subpoena, which targeted Kash and one other person, is slightly more interesting. It asked for slightly different information (the bolded language is new; the italicized language may ask for the same stuff using more specific language) and for a broader period of time — October 1, 2020 through the date of the subpoena, February 22, 2023.
- Subscriber information
- Names (including subscriber names, user names, and screen names)
- Addresses (including mailing addresses, residential addresses, business addresses. and e- mail addresses)
- All call detail records, including but not limited to detail records for inbound and outbound calls, text messages, direct connect, and voicemail messages
- Length of service (including start date) and types of service utilized
- Means and source of payment for such service (including any credit card or bank account number) and billing records
- Telephone or instrument numbers (including MAC addresses, Electronic Serial Numbers (“ESN”), Mobile Electronic Identity Numbers (“MEIN”), Mobile Equipment Identifier (“MEID”), Mobile Identification Numbers (“MIIN”), Subscriber Identity Modules (“SIM”), Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network Number (“MSISDN”), International Mobile Subscriber Identifiers (“IMSI”), or International Mobile Station Equipment Identities (‘IMEI’)
- Records of session times and durations, and the temporarily assigned network addresses (such as Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses) associated with those sessions
- Other subscriber numbers or identities (including temporarily assigned network addresses and registration Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses (including carrier grade natting addresses or ports)
The request for slightly more information may be stylistic, stemming from different practices among prosecutors. Or it may reflect the need to get more information that might help to ID non-text messaging like the Signal texts on which both of Trump’s conspiracies were conducted.
The first subpoena was signed by AUSA Brett Reynolds, with a gag order signed by Magistrate Judge James Mazzone. The second appears to be from a different grand jury and was signed by Thomas Windom under a revised Jack Smith signature block, with the gag order signed by then Chief Judge Beryl Howell herself.
The same FBI Agent, Jamie Garman, was involved in both.
In either case, the involvement of Windom in the second subpoena is of some interest, as if they investigative interest went further or was possibly something else entirely (which might explain the different grand jury). Plus, the involvement of Windom might suggest a January 6 focus rather than a stolen documents one. It is also late enough it may have been part of the effort to understand how Trump used money raised for one political purpose to pay for other purposes.
While these subpoenas may be useful for those — including Igor Lopatonok, the Russian guy who paid Kash to help make a propaganda film (albeit in 2024), or his other Qatari and Chinese influence peddling funders — to learn about that scope of the investigation, there’s nothing remotely scandalous about them.
On the contrary, the scandal remains that the FBI Director continues to hide why he thought he might go to prison if he had to testify before a grand jury without immunity. That Jack Smith only obtained call records to investigate all that is not remotely scandalous.
Update: Kash has released one of two transcripts for his grand jury testimony — but just the one before he got immunity. And all of that is redacted save where he invokes the Fifth.
