Crime & justice

Report: FBI Arrest Claims Allegedly Include Other Agencies' Work

Is the FBI inflating arrest numbers to mask lost ground or is joint task force credit just how real policing works?

2 hours ago·Updated 56 minutes ago

Report: FBI Arrest Claims Allegedly Include Other Agencies' Work

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Above: Kash Patel testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 15. Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images

The Facts

The FBI has allegedly referred 15% fewer criminal cases for federal prosecution under Director Kash Patel than during the same period of the Biden administration, according to an MS NOW analysis of Justice Department data published Wednesday.
Carol Leonnig on X
Ken Dilanian on X
MS Now
Patel rejected the findings, writing that the data comes from the field and from partners, not from him, and that the FBI recorded a 90% increase in violent crime arrests over the previous 18 months. The FBI reportedly did not dispute the lower referral totals.
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The New Republic
Patel has said on social media that the bureau logged more than 53,900 violent crime arrests, a 90% increase, along with 3,258 kilograms of fentanyl seized and 11,081 child victims located. MS NOW reported the arrest tally includes other agencies' work.
Kash Patel on X
Kash Patel on X
MS Now
In a statement to MS NOW, the FBI said it has always counted "violent crime arrests where the FBI has equity in the case and investigation." Former FBI agent Daniel Brunner said counting state and local arrests as bureau achievements has "never been done."
MS Now
FBI data released in August showed the national violent crime rate fell 9.3% in 2025, which the bureau called the largest yearly decline since it began estimating trends in 1936. MS NOW claimed the decline has been a nationwide trend since 2022.
FBI
MS Now
In Operation Summer Heat 2.0, announced in September, the FBI said it worked with more than two dozen agencies to arrest 662 people in Louisiana between June and August. MS NOW reported the release did not specify which arrests the FBI made.
FBI
MS Now

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The Spin

Democratic narrative

Padding the scoreboard with arrests made by local cops amounts to marketing by Kash Patel's FBI. A bureau shedding seasoned investigators while pouring agents into immigration sweeps is abandoning the complex cases nobody else can crack. Credit belongs where the work happened, and inflated numbers only hide how much ground has been lost.

Carol Leonnig on X

Ken Dilanian on X

MS Now

Republican narrative

Violent crime falling and murders dropping across the country speaks louder than a hostile recount of paperwork. Federal, state and local officers working the same cases together is exactly how dangerous people get caught, and sneering at joint operations insults every badge involved. Results on the street matter more than how a spreadsheet slices the credit.

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