FBI Director Kash Patel boasted Tuesday of the bureau’s “historic” success in nabbing fugitives on the Ten Most Wanted list, prompting harsh pushback from an MS NOW reporter who had reported on the FBI’s alleged numbers-fudging.

“They are gaming the system,” Ken Dilanian wrote on X.

As MS Now has reported, FBI officials say the bureau has been placing people on the Most Wanted list whose capture is believed to be imminent.  In other words, these officials tell us—they are gaming the system. One fugitive was captured in Mexico an hour and 13 minutes after… https://t.co/M1WWaLE0b1

In announcing the inclusion of alleged organized crime conspirator Satinderjeet Singh on the list Tuesday, Patel wrote: “This FBI has had historic success manhunting Ten Most Wanted fugitives — since the start of the Trump administration, we’ve captured TEN of the Top Ten Most Wanted, 2.5 times the number of TMW fugitives captured during the previous four years combined.”

Dilanian, who had exposed the alleged data manipulation by citing law enforcement sources in a May report he co-authored, was not impressed.

“As MS Now has reported, FBI officials say the bureau has been placing people on the Most Wanted list whose capture is believed to be imminent,” Dilanian wrote. “In other words, these officials tell us — they are gaming the system. One fugitive was captured in Mexico an hour and 13 minutes after being placed on the list.”

An FBI spokesperson previously called the contentions “false.”

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