FBI chief Patel says 2020 election fraud arrests 'coming soon'

WASHINGTON – Embattled FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau has gathered "information" supporting President Donald Trump’s longstanding and debunked claim that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him – and that arrests are coming soon.

“I would say stay tuned this week. You might see a thing or two,” Patel said April 19 on "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo" on Fox News.

Trump for years has repeated his claims that American elections are rigged and that the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden was essentially stolen from him due to voter fraud and other election problems.

Those claims have been investigated and dismissed by courts and election authorities. Trump lost 61 of 62 cases in court by the time his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to interrupt electoral count proceedings on Jan. 6, 2021.

'Have you done anything about' investigating Trump claims of voter fraud

Bartiromo, a longtime friend of the president’s, asked Patel what the FBI was doing to investigate the election he lost to Biden “because every time I see President Trump, he says this repeatedly, that the election was rigged in 2020.”

“I mean, he says it all the time,” Bartiromo said. “You've been at the FBI now 14 months. Have you done anything about that? And do you have anything to tell us about that?”

“Absolutely, Maria,” Patel said, explaining how he’s “been with the president nearly since day one on this” claim that voter fraud by Democrats amounted to an organized theft of the election.

“They tried to thwart our elections and rig the entire system," Patel told Bartiromo. "And ... that is not something I'm going to allow on my watch.”

'You keep pummeling the target'

Patel made his comments about impending arrests in a wide-ranging interview that also focused on a bombshell report in The Atlantic magazine claiming his alleged excessive drinking and erratic behavior were undermining his ability to lead the nation’s premiere federal law enforcement agency.

Patel told Bartiromo he planned to sue The Atlantic for defamation for what he said were falsehoods in the piece, and did so on April 20, filing a $250 million suit against the magazine and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick. The Atlantic said it stands by its reporting.

The FBI director linked the two issues, suggesting The Atlantic report and other negative media coverage over the years have been hit pieces done in response to his investigations into alleged anti-Trump actions by officials in the Biden and Obama administrations.

Patel also played a role in investigating Democrats for those actions, including the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, as a congressional staffer and then as a national security official in the first Trump administration.

“That just shows you that, when you're over the target, you keep pummeling the target because the media is going to try and pummel you,” Patel told Bartiromo. “We are not going to take this and have not taken this laying down.” 

'We are going to be making arrests ... it's coming soon'

Bartiromo has been a vocal backer of Trump’s claims of election fraud long after they were debunked by investigations and court cases. On her Sunday talk show, she continued to press Patel for details, saying “our audience wants to know why there's never any accountability.”

“I can announce on your show that we've got all the information we need. We're working with our prosecutors at Department of Justice under Attorney General Todd Blanche,” Patel said. “And we are going to be making arrests. And it's coming. And I promise you, it's coming soon.”

Patel said the Trump administration was "folding" the probe into alleged 2020 election fraud "into our entire conspiracy case. And we will let the prosecution speak for them. But we have the information that backs President Trump's claim. But because it's an ongoing prosecution and investigation, I can't get ahead of the DOJ and the president.”

Patel appeared to be referring to a sprawling DOJ investigation that is based out of Miami and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.

USA TODAY reported Nov. 7, 2025, that the DOJ in that case was preparing grand jury subpoenas demanding documents from top Obama administration officials whom Trump believes unfairly tried to implicate him in the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The Florida probe, which had focused intensively on former Obama CIA Director John Brennan, has reportedly expanded in scope, possibly to investigate Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

On April 20, former top DOJ official Joseph DiGenova – a staunch Republican who previously represented Trump's campaign when it challenged the 2020 election results – was sworn in as counselor to the attorney general, his wife and fellow lawyer Victoria Toensing confirmed on X.

DiGenova will oversee the probe from the Southern District of Florida, and is joining the team just days after DOJ official Maria Medetis Long was removed from the case, CBS News reported. A source familiar with the matter told CBS News that Medetis Long was taken off the case after expressing concerns about the strength of the evidence.

A DOJ spokesperson told CBS News that switching personnel on such cases was "healthy and normal" without providing details.

In a brief interview with USA TODAY, DiGenova said he could not comment on the case or his role in it.

"I haven't spoken to anybody in the press and today is not the day for the first conversation," DiGenova said. "I have nothing to say."