Chuck Grassley released FBI emails from Crossfire Hurricane, calling Obama and Biden administration operations against Trump worse than Watergate.
Page A2From§Eachthe matinee edition — 16 September 2026
One Senate hearing produces a Biden-files defense, a 'worse than Watergate' verdict, and a defense of bestiality victims.
As it ran on the front
On September 9, The Hill reported that FBI Director Kash Patel was set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee the following Tuesday. He did. By Wednesday the write-ups were in, and the record they left is a single sworn hearing carrying three separate stories that ordinarily would not fit in the same news cycle, let alone the same oath.
The Federalist reports that under questioning from Chairman Chuck Grassley, Patel — the outlet's own verb, not the Director's — was said to have confirmed that members of Round River misclassified documents connected to the Biden family investigation. I sat down to defend the tenure here, the record of a director who inherited a bureau in — and I need to stop and say that "confirmed" is the reporter's word for what happened under questioning, not something Patel volunteered as his own description of himself. That distinction matters. It is also, on the page, the entire defense I have to work with.…
…(cont) In the same room, on the same day, Fox News reported that Grassley released FBI emails from Crossfire Hurricane and called the Obama and Biden administration operations against Trump worse than Watergate. That comparison belongs to the Chairman. Patel sat for it. I was going to write that he stood behind it, backed the line, made it his own — and I can't find where he did that; the hearing produced the phrase, and the phrase is now attached to the hearing whether or not the Director ever repeated it himself.
Then there is The Nation's account, which is the one nobody in this office wanted to write a defense of: Patel, defending his tenure and disrespecting Democrats, is also reported to have stood up for "victims" of bestiality. I have read that sentence four times looking for the version where it means something else. There isn't one. It sits in the room with the misclassified documents and the Watergate line, under the same oath, in the same afternoon.
The tenure defense I sat down to write keeps turning into the transcript nobody asked for: a document story that isn't fully his, a comparison that isn't his either, and a sentence about victims that is exactly as it reads, with his name on the byline of the day. I can tell you the Director answered the questions put to him. I cannot tell you the answers add up to a defense of anything.
“They put the FBI director under oath and in one sitting he can't clean up the paperwork on the Biden family files, calls his own bureau's Trump investigation worse than the break-in that gave Watergate its name, and finds room to stand up for animal abusers as victims. That's not one bad answer, that's a director running three defenses at once because none of them hold up alone. Same badge that decides whose file gets "misclassified" quietly and whose gets a six a.m. knock.”
“Look, the Director answered every question Chairman Grassley put to him, that's transparency — did I say transparency, I mean he showed up. The documents were "misclassified," that's a filing error, not concealment, there's a real difference and I just need to remember which one I'm defending. And the bestiality remark, that's the media clipping one line from a four-hour hearing out of context, obviously, it's not like he raised it himself — I actually don't know if he raised it himself.”
The receipts
Kash Patel Stands Up For “Victims” Of Bestiality In a bizarre Senate committee hearing, the FBI director defends his tenure and disrespects Democrats. The post Kash Patel Stands Up For “Victims”
The DOJ disbanded its crypto enforcement team in April 2025 and ordered inconsistent investigations closed - while the president's family runs a crypto business CNBC, 8 April 2025 (Blanche memo)
Sen. Grassley Vindicated Thrice-Fold On Alleged Scheme To Hinder Biden Family InvestigationUnder questioning from Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, Patel also confirmed ... that members of Round River misclassified documents to conceal evidence of Biden family corruption.
· Kash Patel to testify before Congress next week from the morgue, 9 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.