How Did Stephen A. Smith's Take on the NBA Gambling Scandal Spark an FBI Backlash?

On Thursday (October 23), FBI Director Kash Patel shot at ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, dubbing one of Smith's remarks "the single dumbest thing I've ever heard out of anyone in modern history." Smith floated theories about who might be pulling the strings behind the federal bust that tore apart a massive gambling ring, an action that led to Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier, and members of four of New York's five mafia families being taken into custody.

Patel's sharp rebuke underscores the clash between police operations and the media’s narrative surrounding the investigation.

FBI's Patel rejects Smith's Trump retribution claims, stresses federal arrests

In an episode of The Ingraham Angle, broadcast on Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel, as TMZ reported, directly denied comments by sports commentator Stephen A. Smith that President Trump was on a kind of retribution tour against professional sports like the NBA - and possibly the WNBA too - because they have publicly protested the President. Stephen A. Smith said:

"Don't be surprised that the WNBA is next on his list... Because when you've got all of these protests that have been going on out there and people that have been protesting against him and what have you, this man is coming. He's coming."

Calling Smith's theory "the single dumbest thing" he had ever heard, Patel didn't hold back, also taking a pointed jab at Washington, D.C., residents in the process. The FBI chief emphasized that the recent arrest of more than 30 people in 11 states was part of an extensive federal probe that included wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery, and illegal gambling that was done under his directive. Kash Patel said:

"I'm the FBI director I decide which arrests to conduct…. That may be the single dumbest thing I have heard out of anyone in modern history."

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