MS NOW issued an on-air correction Wednesday after reporting that FBI Director Kash Patel had “landed in Russia” for a scheduled meeting, when in fact he was in Lynchburg, Virginia, attending a law enforcement appreciation event at Liberty University.
Anchor Peter Alexander broke the news on air, telling viewers, “MS NOW has learned that Patel has landed in Russia for a meeting scheduled to take place there,” citing “two people familiar with the matter.” Justice and intelligence reporter Ken Dilanian followed with analysis, saying his FBI sources were troubled because they didn’t know the purpose of the trip, and suggested it would “raise a lot of eyebrows” given Patel’s potential hosts could be Russia’s security service, the FSB.
The FBI’s Rapid Response account on X quickly disputed the report, noting Patel was in Virginia for the Liberty University event, and wrote, “MS Now’s ‘sources’ are ‘familiar’ with NOTHING.” Patel responded on social media, “Facts over clickbait.”
Later that day, Dilanian corrected the network’s earlier reporting on air. “I want to correct reporting from earlier today. I reported that two sources had told us that FBI Director Kash Patel had landed in Russia for a planned trip that had been reported about recently. We’ve since learned that Patel did not, in fact, land in Russia today and remains in the U.S. The FBI did not answer our questions when they asked them about it,” he said.
“But we do know now that he has not already landed in Russia, as we reported earlier. The timing of any potential trip remains unclear,” Dilanian continued. “Again, we regret this error, and we are transparent about when we make errors.”
When Fox News Digital sought comment, MS NOW pointed to Dilanian’s on-air remarks.
Politico had reported in July that Patel had a planned trip to Russia that would include stops in Moscow and St. Petersburg, a report that appears to have informed MS NOW’s since-corrected account.
