UPDATE (Feb. 28, 2025, 7:12 a.m. ET): This piece has been updated to reflect changes made in a CNBC report cited in this piece.
Donald Trump’s media company offered Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kashyap Patel, hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock days before his confirmation hearing on Jan. 30, according to regulatory filings reviewed by CNBC.
In response to written questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI director nominee Kash Patel said he “did not and will not accept” a monetary award and shares from Trump Media and Technology Group “to avoid any appearance of any conflict.”
CNBC reported Patel was offered the gift as a member of Trump Media’s board of directors. Trump’s son Don Jr. and Linda McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment executive whom Trump tapped to lead the Department of Education, also were offered stock gifts on Tuesday. (According to CNBC, “McMahon wrote in a Feb. 7 ethics filing that she would resign from the Trump Media board if she were confirmed as Education secretary and forfeit the portion of the stock award that had not yet vested. McMahon added that she would divest from the remaining one-fourth of the stock award, which has already vested, within 90 days of her confirmation.”)
CNBC previously reported Trump transferred his shares of Trump Media, which operates Truth Social, to a revocable trust listing Trump as the sole beneficiary, which means he technically “indirectly” owns the shares he transferred.
According to CNBC, which updated its initial report to include Patel’s and McMahon’s responses to the stock awards:
The company awarded 25,946 shares each to Patel, Donald Trump Jr., and the president’s pick for Education secretary, Linda McMahon, who all served as Trump Media directors at the time, the Jan. 30 filings said. The stock awards were made public hours after Patel appeared for a Senate hearing on his nomination to lead the FBI, the top U.S. law enforcement agency.
Trump has been known to use his platform to promote extremist talking points and spread far-right disinformation, promoting false claims that government officials orchestrated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and that Democrats were bringing millions of undocumented immigrants into the country to vote. The fact he hasn’t fully divested from this media company despite becoming president is already a massive conflict of interest, since voters now have to use his personal social media site just to find out what the head of their government is thinking.
Patel has also threatened against media outlets he disagrees with. Last week, Patel refused to answer “no” when Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono asked him whether he intends to go after the media “criminally or civilly” — as he vowed on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast.
Trump Media and the White House have not responded to requests for comment on the gifts from multiple news outlets.
CORRECTION (Feb. 21, 2025, 7:46 p.m. ET): A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that Patel had received a monetary award from Trump Media and Technology Group. He said he did not accept the award that was offered.