Kash Patel recently ignited turmoil within the FBI after prematurely announcing the prevention of a Halloween terrorist plot, despite the fact that all suspects had not yet been apprehended. This incident mirrored a previous blunder when he inaccurately claimed on social media that a suspect had been detained mere hours after Charlie Kirk’s murder at Utah Valley University. In reality, the true suspect, Tyler Robinson, wasn’t captured until more than a day later. On Halloween morning, Patel took to social media platform X to declare, “The FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack,” and mentioned that arrests were made in Michigan.

The issue with Patel’s statement was significant—the arrests he referred to were incomplete, as not all suspects in the foiled plot had been detained. Local law enforcement was left in the dark about the details, and no criminal charges had been filed yet, according to an explosive report by the Wall Street Journal. Sources and court documents revealed to the WSJ that associates of the alleged terrorists, residing in New Jersey and Washington state, learned of the foiled plot through Patel’s post. This prompted them to expedite plans to flee the country, but they were intercepted by authorities before they could escape.

The Justice Department was reportedly furious about the potential jeopardy to their investigation and lodged complaints directly with the White House over Patel’s ill-timed social media announcement. Local and state officials, caught off guard by Patel’s actions, scrambled to piece together the unfolding situation, as per the WSJ. Federal prosecutors are currently charging a group of young men from Michigan with stockpiling firearms and ammunition for a purported ISIS-inspired attack on gay nightclubs in the suburban Detroit area.

A federal complaint claims the men had spent weeks scoping out potential attack locations, researching similar mass shootings, and practiced shooting together at a gun range. The men were communicating with the two teenagers from New Jersey and Washington who had planned to flee the US to fight for ISIS, according to prosecutors. After learning of the Michigan arrests following Patel’s announcement, the teens accelerated their plans to flee the country by booking flights to Turkey for November 5th.

‘So you know what happened in Dearborn?’ One of the 19-year-old men told a confidential informant in a text message, according to a criminal complaint filed in New Jersey federal court. ‘The feds are gonna be looking for us in a week maybe, so we are leaving today or tomorrow,’ the man added. ‘We’re gonna delete everything off of our phones,” he said. “We need to leave urgently before this gets bigger.’

Despite Patel’s social media disruption, Federal agents were able to quell the situation by arresting the man as he was awaiting his flight to Istanbul at Newark Liberty International Airport. The other teen was arrested later that night at his home in Kent, Washington. Multiple FBI and DOJ spokespeople denied the Wall Street Journal’s reporting on Patel.

‘This reporting is flat out false. The Attorney General and I have worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Director Patel every step of the way,’ wrote Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. ‘Any anonymous coward spreading lies to divide this Department insults the men and women of law enforcement who risk their lives to keep this country safe.’