Man Charged With Threatening to Kill FBI Director Kash Patel: Anthony Palazzolo Arrested in Michigan, Prosecutors Say

A Michigan man has been charged with threatening to kill FBI Director Kash Patel and an associate, federal prosecutors announced. Anthony Daniel Palazzolo, 42, of Chesterfield Township, Michigan, was arrested on October 30, 2026, and charged with making the threats, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, whose release the desk read in full this cycle. U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. announced the charge alongside Jennifer Runyan, the FBI's Special Agent in Charge in Detroit.

The criminal complaint charges Palazzolo with sending the associate — identified in the release only as Victim-1 — a Facebook message on October 8, 2026, in which, prosecutors say, he wrote that he had "put a hit out" on the associate and that Patel was a "dead mf too." After the FBI interviewed him, prosecutors say, Palazzolo continued to harass a Detroit FBI agent by phone, threatening to come to the office and "use deadly force against every single one of you government officials." CNN's account of the complaint, also read this cycle, says agents traced him through his Facebook and TikTok accounts to his Chesterfield Township home, about 30 miles north of Detroit, and that he has not entered a plea.

Palazzolo appeared in federal court in Michigan and was ordered temporarily detained; a detention hearing is set for November 2, prosecutors and CNN report. The U.S. Attorney's Office notes that a criminal complaint is only a charging document and is not evidence of guilt, and that the government bears the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at a fair trial. The case is being investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eaton Brown.