FBI Director Kash Patel spoke in front of the House Intelligence Committee during the Annual Worldwide Threats Assessment Hearing on Thursday, which also included appearances by Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. As RedState shared earlier, Ratcliffe detailed what the U.S. knew about Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities ahead of the recent joint strikes with Israel.
In part of his remarks, Patel shared a list of the administration’s “historic” wins in his department during the first year of Trump 47:
.@FBIDirectorKash lays out the stats of the FBI’s historic first year under President Trump:
– 112% increase in violent offenders arrested
– 20% decrease in homicides, robberies
– Disrupted 1,800 criminal gangs
– Seized enough fentanyl to kill 178 million Americans
– 490%… pic.twitter.com/dR4wlAp7x1— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 19, 2026
The post reads:
.@FBIDirectorKash lays out the stats of the FBI’s historic first year under President Trump:
– 112% increase in violent offenders arrested
– 20% decrease in homicides, robberies
– Disrupted 1,800 criminal gangs
– Seized enough fentanyl to kill 178 million Americans
– 490% increase in arrests of online child predators
– Located 6,200 missing kids
– 300 human traffickers arrested – Arrested seven of the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted
But in another part of what he said, Dir. Patel shared that combatting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has been partly hamstrung by rules set forth in law in prior administrations by CFIUS — the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. He explained that it has forced them to find other avenues in taking on Chinese activities near military bases in our homeland.
“We halve our capabilities, with folks like CFIUS, when it comes to the purchases of land around military bases; that [restriction] only extends one mile under the current law,” he said.
As he put it, they’ve had to get “creative” in several operations this past year.
“TAKING ON THE CCP”: @FBIDirectorKash explains how the FBI is getting “creative” to counter threats from Communist China here in the United States.
Working with state and local partners, the FBI seized a 400-acre farm owned by a CCP official in Texas and helped state officials… pic.twitter.com/LU7tsfUbAB
— State Armor (@StateArmor) March 19, 2026
“TAKING ON THE CCP”:
@FBIDirectorKash explains how the FBI is getting “creative” to counter threats from Communist China here in the United States. Working with state and local partners, the FBI seized a 400-acre farm owned by a CCP official in Texas and helped state officials shut down a CCP drilling center off the coast of Louisiana that was believed to be stealing data from Americans.
Patel spoke about two ops the FBI completed with the help of “state and local partners.” In the first one, a Chinese official owned a massive farm in Texas:
“But because he was outside the reach of the CFIUS law, the FBI executed an unlawful possession of firearms criminal complaint. We seized the land in its entirety, and that CCP official is back in mainland China. We are working to get him back here.”
Then he gave the second example, on a potential cyberintelligence plot by the CCP they thwarted:
“Off the coast of Louisiana, we worked with Governor Landry’s team on drilling sites…because, again, they were outside the whole CFIUS and the one-mile radius,” Dir. Patel said. “With the intelligence we were able to provide our state and local authorities, they shut down that CCP drilling center, which we believed was actually used to provide and steal data and intelligence” from Americans.
This new creativity setting is in line with the piece I wrote on Wed., with the dynamic new collaboration between the FBI and the IRS to investigate and shut down the ability of progressive nonprofit organizations to fund Antifa’s violence across the country. They are finding workarounds on that, too, with laws playing catch-up on taking apart and bringing domestic terror organizations to justice.
China Can Wait: Trump Wants to Delay Beijing Summit to Focus on Iran
DNI Gabbard also spoke to the Senate’s counterpart committee on Wednesday, as my colleague Bob Hoge wrote.
Once Patel wrapped up his answers on Thursday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford (R-AR-01) told him that, based on how he described his department’s experience with it, CFIUS sounds “inadequate at this point,” and suggested that Congress “could do something legislatively…to provide some broader authority to address” the challenges the law has been posing to law enforcement operations. And the director replied that they would “love” if that could happen.
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