Kash Patel, the FBI director nominee nominated by President Donald Trump, said that the U.S. SEAL Team Six saved a kidnapped American citizen held captive in northern Nigeria in under sixty seconds.

This was said by Mr. Patel on January 30, 2025, at his confirmation hearing before the US Senate. His involvement in the covert operation to free Philip Walton, the 27-year-old son of American missionaries who had been abducted by armed bandits from neighboring Niger and taken to northern Nigeria for ransom, was the subject of intense questioning. On Thursday, Mr. Patel told the U.S. Congress, "The operation lasted for 60 seconds." He was also questioned about his apparent negligence in repeating a fictitious authorization that the SEAL Team Six had received from the Nigerian authorities to operate in Nigerian airspace.

Having gathered knowledge of the area where Mr. Walton was being held, Mr. Patel was the driving force behind the rescue effort. Since the bandits may relocate Mr. Walton, he saw an opening for the Seal Team Six to attack. Senior U.S. authorities discovered that the Nigerian government had not yet given the Navy SEALs permission to enter their airspace, much less land, while the plane was in midair carrying operatives. In his memoir, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper stated that it was one of Mr. Patel's many mistakes and that he was worried about the SEALs, especially if they would be shot down for the unauthorized operation.

 Mr. Esper's memoir, which described the operation, said, "I was worried that being crammed into an aircraft burning holes in the sky for an additional hour or so would wear on the special operators, that it might affect their readiness somehow." According to Mr. Esper, the SEALs suspected Mr. Patel of falsifying the clearance that the Nigerian government granted them. Mr. Esper writes, "My team suspected Patel made up the approval story, but they didn't have all the facts." In his book "Government Gangsters," Mr. Patel denied the accusations, saying that some individuals attempted to thwart the president's plans by putting obstacles in the way of counterterrorism operations in the Middle East and Africa.

After the State Department stepped in and moved quickly to secure airspace approval from the Nigerian authorities before the Navy SEALs landing, the operation ultimately proved successful. It's unclear if Mr. Patel's responses to the questions were satisfactory, and he has encountered a lot of resistance in his pursuit of the FBI directorship.