The FBI Director Just Booked a Flight to Moscow–and the KGB’s Grandchildren Are Picking Him Up at the Airport
Read this slowly. Then ask yourself one question: who does the FBI actually work for?
The FBI Director Just Booked a Flight to Moscow –and the KGB’s Grandchildren Are Picking Him Up at the Airport
Read this slowly. Then ask yourself one question: who does the FBI actually work for?
The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #977: Tuesday, July 21st, 2026
Let me tell you something that should stop you cold.
The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation…the top cop in the United States of America, the man with the keys to every counterintelligence file the Republic owns …is reportedly getting on a plane.
Destination? Moscow. Then St. Petersburg.
His host? Russia’s FSB…the direct institutional successor to the KGB.
Read that again. The secret police. The same outfit, new letterhead.
According to Politico, the trip is penciled in for October 14 and 15. And here’s the part that should make the hair on your neck stand up:
That’s a matter of weeks before the American midterm elections.
Now. I want you to notice something…the polished news anchors won’t say out loud.
Nobody will tell you what he’s doing there.
It remains unclear whether Patel will meet Vladimir Putin or any of his senior aides. The agenda is undisclosed. A closed door. A blank calendar. The most powerful law-enforcement officer in America walking into the lion’s den…and the “itinerary” is a shrug.
Even Politico’s own sources…people paid to be diplomatic…called it what it is: “an unusual and sensitive trip for an FBI chief to one of America’s top adversaries.”
Unusual and sensitive. That’s Washington-speak for “we can’t believe he’s actually doing this.”
Here’s Why This Isn’t Normal–And Don’t Let Anyone Tell You It Is
Let me give you the context they’re hoping you skip past.
The last sitting FBI director to set foot in Russia was Robert Mueller. In 2013. Thirteen years ago. And Mueller…remember him?…was later named special counsel to investigate Russia’s interference in American elections.
Think about the symmetry for a second. The man who investigated the Kremlin was the last director to go. The next one to go is a man who spent years insisting the whole investigation was a fraud.
Because that’s who Kash Patel is.
He rose to power as a House Intelligence Committee staffer…made his name attacking the Russia probe…branded the whole affair the “Russiagate hoax,” and even wrote a trilogy of children’s books mocking it. Children’s books. About the Russia investigation.
And now…the man who built his career telling you Russia was never a threat...
...is flying to Russia…to be chaperoned by Russia’s spy service…weeks before your election…with no agenda anyone will name.
“But Trump’s People Go to Russia All The Time”
Sure. Let’s talk about that…because it’s the defense you’ll hear.
Trump’s negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have made repeated trips to Moscow. Trump himself met Putin in Alaska. Fine. Those are diplomats and envoys. Cutting deals is arguably their job.
But…here’s the distinction that matters…and I need you to hold onto it:
The FBI is not a diplomatic agency.
The FBI is the tip of the spear in America’s counterintelligence war…the agency whose entire reason for existing…includes catching Russian spies.
When the head of that agency flies to Moscow…to be hosted by the FSB…the very service he’s supposed to be defending you against…that isn’t diplomacy.
That’s the guard…walking into the vault…and shaking hands with the burglar.
The Part That Should Concern Every Human Being on Earth
Now widen the lens, because this is bigger than one American election.
The whole world runs on a simple, fragile assumption:
That America’s law-enforcement and intelligence institutions are independent. That they answer to the law…not to a strongman…ours or anyone else’s.
The moment that assumption cracks…the moment the FBI Director looks like he’s taking meetings with the FSB weeks before an election…agenda hidden…every dissident…every journalist…every ally who ever trusted American institutions to hold the line has to wonder:
Is anyone still guarding the henhouse? Or has the fox been handed a key and a warm welcome?
He’s not just doing this in the dark. He’s already drawing fire from across the spectrum…even from his own side. MAGA figure Laura Loomer publicly slammed the trip; a former Democratic strategist openly asked what “legitimate reason” there could possibly be.
When your critics and your allies are both saying “wait, what?” …that’s not partisan noise. That’s a warning siren.
What You Should Do With This
I’m not going to tell you what to conclude. I’m going to tell you what to refuse to do: refuse to look away.
Ask the question out loud. Ask your representatives. Ask why the head of the FBI needs an FSB welcome party three weeks before Americans vote. Ask what’s on the agenda that’s too sensitive to write down.
Demand the itinerary. Demand the transcript. Demand daylight.
Because in a free country…the man who guards the secrets…doesn’t get to fly to Moscow and keep his own trip a secret.
Stay awake.
BONUS INVESTIGATION: Follow the Money to Moscow
Before Kash Patel Booked a Flight to Russia, a Kremlin-Linked Filmmaker Wrote Him a Check
What the financial disclosures actually say…and the questions nobody in his office wants to answer.
Look. Anybody can take a strange trip. People make mistakes. But investigators don’t chase headlines…they chase paper. And when you pull Kash Patel’s own paper…a pattern shows up that is a lot harder to wave away than a single plane ticket.
So let’s do what real reporters do.
Let’s follow the money.
The Check
Here’s the fact, straight from the record; not rumor…not a hit piece…but Patel’s own financial disclosure submitted during his confirmation.
In 2024, before he ran the FBI…Kash Patel was paid $25,000 by a film company owned by a Russian national with U.S. citizenship; a company that has produced programming pushing “deep state” conspiracy theories and anti-Western narratives of the kind the Kremlin relentlessly promotes.
The company: Global Tree Pictures. The man who runs it: Igor Lopatonok.
And Lopatonok is not some random producer. His previous projects include a pro-Russian influence campaign that received money from a fund created by Vladimir Putin himself.
Read that twice. A fund. Created by Putin.
Who Is Igor Lopatonok?
This is where the “coincidence” defense starts to crack.
Lopatonok’s filmography reads like a Kremlin wish list.
His productions include Ukraine on Fire…which featured Oliver Stone interviewing Putin and pushed the narrative that Ukraine’s 2013 Maidan Revolution was a U.S.-orchestrated coup. He also directed Maidan Massacre…a film that denies pro-Russian forces were behind the killing of activists in Kyiv.
And…according to investigative reporting…Lopatonok has planned films celebrating authoritarian strongmen like Belarus’s Lukashenko and Azerbaijan’s Aliyev.
This is the man whose company…cut Kash Patel a check.
What Did the $25,000 Buy?
Patel’s appearance in a six-part series. And the title alone tells you the genre.
The series was called All the President’s Men: The Conspiracy Against Trump…and it depicted Patel and other first-term Trump officials as victims of a “deep state” plot to destroy those who stood by the president.
It featured Steve Bannon…Rudy Giuliani…and Michael Flynn…who resigned in 2017 over false statements about his talks with Russia’s ambassador…and aired in November 2024 on Tucker Carlson’s online network.
And…Patel wasn’t the only one paid. Bankruptcy filings show the same company…paid Giuliani Communications $100,000 for participation.
Here’s the connective tissue that should stop you:
The series was directed by Sean Stone…who had hosted a show on the Russian state network RT America until it shut down in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine.
So line it up. A filmmaker funded by a Putin fund. A director who worked for Russian state TV. A production financed and distributed through pro-Kremlin channels. And in the middle of it…cashing a check…the man who now runs American counterintelligence.
And Now He’s Flying to Moscow
That’s the part that turns a footnote into a story.
It’s one thing for a private citizen to take questionable money for a documentary. It happens.
But…that same man is now the sitting Director of the FBI…and he’s reportedly headed to Russia in October to be hosted by the FSB…agenda undisclosed… weeks before an American election.
The $25,000 was 2024. The Moscow trip is 2026. Same man. Same orbit. Now with a security clearance and the keys to the building.
You don’t need a G’damn conspiracy theory. You just need to be able to count.
In Fairness–Here’s His Side
Because an investigation that ignores the defense isn’t an investigation, it’s a sermon. So here it is, straight:
Patel disclosed this payment himself. It was in the official paperwork. It wasn’t hidden…it was reported, which is exactly how it became public.
His spokesperson said Patel went “above and beyond” the process…countless meetings…hundreds of pages of documents…six hours of testimony…and that the Senate evaluated all potential conflicts.
And…that’s a fair point. Taking money to appear in a film is not a crime. Connections are not proof of coordination. The Senate confirmed him knowing all of this.
But…here’s the thing about disclosure:
It answers what. It doesn’t answer why.
Why did a Putin-adjacent film company want Kash Patel’s face in their product? Why $25,000? And why…of all the people in the U.S. government…is this man…with this history…now the one boarding a plane to be welcomed by Russia’s spy service three weeks before you vote?
Disclosure got us the check.
We’re still waiting on the answer.
#HoldFast
Back soon.
-Jack
Jack Hopkins
P.S. Remember the timeline, because the timeline is the whole story.
The check cleared in 2024. The confirmation came in 2025. The Moscow flight is booked for October 2026…a matter of weeks before you walk into a voting booth.
Same man. Same orbit. Only now he’s got a badge, a clearance, and the keys to America’s counterintelligence files. If that sequence doesn’t bother you…ask yourself what would. Then forward this to three people who still think it’s nothing.
Sources
On the reported Moscow trip (Politico, July 2026):
On the $25,000 payment (disclosed via Patel’s confirmation filings, Feb. 2025):
Well, this is scary as hell. What can he do to completely screw up the election? And my ongoing question: Why hasn't something been done about this shit show before now?
I've read + sent the following to Ron Wyden's website:
Why does the head of the FBI need an FSB welcome party three weeks before Americans vote? What’s on the agenda that’s too sensitive to write down?
Demand the itinerary. Demand the transcript.