(Ken Silva, Headline USA) FBI Director Kashyap Patel has claimed to cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that has worked hand-in-glove with the bureau since the J. Edgar Hoover era.
The FBI’s supposed breakup with the ADL stems from the latter organization labeling the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, a “hate group.” In comments made to Fox News, Patel portrayed the ADL-FBI relationship as a product of former director James Comey.
“James Comey disgraced the FBI by writing ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedding agents with an extreme group functioning like a terrorist organization and the disgraceful operation they ran spying on Americans. That was not law enforcement, it was activism dressed up as counterterrorism, and it put Americans in danger,” Patel reportedly said.
“That era is finished. This FBI formally rejects Comey’s policies and any partnership with the ADL.”
The FBI’s relationship with the ADL goes all the way back to Hoover, who was the first and longest-tenured director in the bureau’s history. In 1968, he ordered the FBI’s field offices to establish liaisons with the ADL’s regional counterparts.
This would be big if Kashyap were telling the truth, but I don't believe it for a second. The FBI's relationship with the ADL long predates Comey. It goes all the way back to Hoover, who in 1968 ordered all his field offices to work with the ADL. https://t.co/UeAMjfV8W3 pic.twitter.com/D4H8viNX03
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) October 1, 2025
“This organization, like the Bureau, is opposed to groups and individuals espousing bigotry, prejudice and extremism,” Hoover wrote in a January 1968 directive.
“The Anti-Defamation League receives considerable information of interest to this Bureau and has been very cooperative in the past in referring such data to us,” he added.
The FBI’s relationship with the ADL has only strengthened since then, with the bureau often using ADL undercover informants to spy on groups—a tactic that the FBI uses to circumvent the Constitution.
Headline USA also reported revealed year that the ADL honored an undercover FBI bomb tech who infiltrated the Outlaw bikers in Florda—helping entrap the Outlaws in a dubious bomb plot. That bomb tech, Kelly Boaz, was honored despite a scandal-plagued career with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, where he was the subject of more than a dozen internal investigations since joining in 1989, several involving allegations of excessive force.
Boaz also caused the FBI to arrest the wrong person in the undercover operation against the Outlaws, which resulted in a $30,000 civil lawsuit. That saga can be read about here.
One of the more recent examples of an FBI-ADL partnership is related to the bureau’s investigation into the right-wing group Patriot Front. A 2018 FBI report shows that agents relied on information from the ADL in a report about the Patriot Front.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
