Last month, John James, the Republican nominee for governor of Michigan, went on Benny Johnson's podcast and made a promise about November's election. It wasn't about his own plans. It was about the FBI's.
"I've already had a good conversation with my friend Kash Patel," James said, according to a clip Johnson posted, "who has said already that the FBI will have a presence leading up to Election Day in Michigan, in both West Michigan and Southeast Michigan."
A candidate for governor, telling voters that the head of the FBI personally promised him federal agents in two named parts of the state.
On Tuesday, Patel was asked about it under oath.
"You bet we're going to have them there"
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on September 15, Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont read James' quote to Patel and asked if it was true. According to ABC News, Patel answered:
"We have an election crimes community coordinator in all 56 field office, so you bet we're going to have them there and manning the post for election interference matters."
When Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut asked whether it would be against the law to send FBI agents to polling places, Patel said:
"I don't know that we can't legally do it."
Federal law isn't silent here. The statute on troops at the polls says anyone in the civil or military service of the United States who "orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held" can face up to five years in prison, unless the force is needed "to repel armed enemies of the United States." ABC News also noted that in some states it is not legal for law enforcement to be inside a polling place.
He wouldn't make the pledge
Welch asked Patel a simple question: "Do you pledge that you will not, in any way, interfere in the will of the American people when they go to the polls in November?"
Patel's answer, as reported by the Arizona Mirror: "I pledge unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies."
Blumenthal told Patel he was "dissatisfied that you are unable to give us an unequivocal, clear, unambiguous commitment that the FBI will be kept out of election interference."
This isn't hypothetical. In January, FBI agents seized 2020 presidential election ballots from Fulton County, Georgia. Earlier this month, the Trump administration served voter-related subpoenas on Nevada's secretary of state.
Still won't say Trump lost
Welch also asked Patel whether he agrees with Trump that Trump won the 2020 election. Just days earlier, Trump had said: "We had a rigged election... I won three times."
According to Common Dreams, Patel said: "there are many ongoing investigations surrounding that matter, so I'm not gonna comment on it and stylize the evidence." Asked whether he agrees with Trump that Democrats can only win this year by cheating, he again refused to comment, citing "ongoing investigations."
Georgia counted its 2020 votes three times, once by hand. Trump lost the state by 11,779 votes.
Why James' boast matters
John James didn't just repeat a rumor. He presented it as something the FBI director had told him directly, a favor from a "friend," and he named the two regions of the state. It's the same move Georgia's Republican nominee for governor made last month when he told a supporter worried about Democrats cheating that the governor would "get the National Guard" for the election.
James has his own history on elections: he has repeated Trump's claim that Trump won Michigan three times. Trump lost Michigan in 2020.
A candidate for governor announcing federal agents for his state's election, and an FBI director who says he doesn't know whether the law stops him, is a combination Michigan voters should keep in mind in November.
What we know
John James told a podcaster that his "friend Kash Patel" had promised the FBI "will have a presence leading up to Election Day" in West and Southeast Michigan. Asked about it under oath on September 15, Patel said "you bet" FBI election coordinators will be there, said "I don't know that we can't legally" send agents to polling places, refused to pledge not to interfere in November, and declined to say whether Trump lost the 2020 election. Federal law makes it a crime for anyone in federal service to bring "troops or armed men" to a place where an election is held.
Source
- Arizona Mirror (States Newsroom): FBI Director Kash Patel wouldn't promise to keep FBI agents out of polling places in November
- ABC News: Kash Patel clashes with Dems about possibly sending FBI agents to polling places
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images, via the Arizona Mirror.
