Trump critic U.S. Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) responded to the news of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying he will share evidence with the U.S. showing Russia is assisting Iran in targeting U.S. bases in the Middle East via satellite surveillance. The congressman’s response is aimed largely at FBI Director Kash Patel.
Lieu amplified the report and added: “Dear @Kash_Patel: When Russia wines and dines you during your traitorous visit to Russia in October, perhaps you will think of the U.S. Servicemembers wounded or killed with the assistance of Russia.”
Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) also opposed the scheduled visit and wrote: “On the same day Trump imposes a 50% tariff on Canada, Kash Patel announces he’s traveling to Russia.”
Kim added, “Trump continues to destroy our reputation abroad by treating enemies like friends and friends like enemies.”
Patel is expected to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg on October 14-15. RBC-Ukraine reported the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) is expected to host the visit.
Dear @Kash_Patel: When Russia wines and dines you during your traitorous visit to Russia in October, perhaps you will think of the U.S. Servicemembers wounded or killed with the assistance of Russia. https://t.co/4LRhb03PEa
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 25, 2026
The FSB has been criticized for “corruption, human rights violations and secret police activities” by Kremlin critics including the late Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 as a result of polonium poisoning.
[NOTE: In July 2025, Putin signed a law officially restoring the FSB’s authority to operate its own detention centers, which Russian investigative journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan have described as “the basis for a new Gulag.”]
Some Trump supporters replied to Lieu by calling him a hypocrite, as several Democrats have met with Putin including Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama and Secretaries of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton.
The last sitting FBI director to visit Russia was Robert Mueller, who traveled to Moscow in 2013 — before Russia’s occupation of Crimea — to discuss counterterrorism strategies after the Boston Marathon bombing investigation.
In 2016, Mueller led an investigation into accusations of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election, which Patel has repeatedly referred to as the “Russiagate hoax.”