Fair enough. My position on the FBI hasn't shifted one iota. I haven't trusted them since I was in my early 20's. Which oddly enough was around the time the X-Files came out. I'm sure that's just a coincidence.
Here is something I am willing to admit to: when Patel was tapped to head the FBI, I had a small, glimmering hope that at some point, he would restore my trust in this institution. He hasn't. For some, the weirdness has ramped up to an eleven, but to me, it just looks like business as usual.
Again, I'm not saying he's lying.
I'm saying it wouldn't surprise me if we find out in the future he is.
Donald Trump forever lost me (on honesty governance) when he sent Sidney Powell out to fire off the most insane election conspiracy in the history of man. When I first heard it, I figured "there HAS to be something to this since it's not JUST Trump, so this'll be interesting." But then, she produced nothing but accusations, just like her boss.
Most of Trump's actions in governing over the previous four years - for better or worse - fell into the category of hardball politics, political hypocrisy, or "stuff folks have always done even though we didn't know about it" (nobody is ever going to convince me Nixon was the first guy to engage in a criminal cover-up, he was just the first one stupid enough to get caught on tape talking about it).
So while under "norms" we have the spectacle of a carnival barker simpleton upholding Ukraine aid asking for a server to spy on Biden, yeah it's criminal but we all know that stuff has always gone on. YES, Trump did downplay Covid - but then again, Democrats over-exaggerated almost everything about it, too (hint: "we will have to shut down for the rest of the year" in March 2020 by Democratic governors really meant, "until after the Election, to give us a better chance to win"). Again, politics and yuck.
He's now holding the equivalent of a loyalty oath, and while the FBI has hardly always been a bastion of justice and impartiality, it has still spoken with authority. I would never have thought (for example) that Louis Freeh would have covered up for Clinton.
The current President has made it crystal clear that he's the Sanchez character from "Licence to Kill" - you will be loyal first and foremost to Donald Trump and keep his tail out of jail by all means necessary.
Expecting such a guy to lie is, well, expected.