Washington DC - FBI Director Kash Patel made a stunning admission on Monday, directly contradicting claims made by President Donald Trump to try to justify deploying the National Guard to the nation's capital.

During an awkward moment during Trump's press conference on his plan to take over Washington DC, Patel admitted that the city's crime problem is not as bad as otherwise indicated.

"We are now reporting that the murder rate is on track to be the lowest in US history – in modern recorded history," Patel said Monday, before boasting that this was "thanks to this team behind me and President Trump's priorities."

The statement directly contradicted the brutal image of the nation's capital that Trump was so desperate to paint during the press conference.

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"I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor," Trump said during the same press conference. "This is Liberation Day in DC, and we're going to take our capital back."

Patel's comments reflect the reality on the ground, however, far more accurately than the hyperbole employed by Trump.

Statistics published by the Metropolitan Police for Washington DC (MPDC) show a dramatic drop in recorded crimes across the city between 2024 and 2025.

Homicide is shown to have decreased by 11% and cases of assault with a dangerous weapon have dropped 20%. Most dramatically, instances of sexual abuse have declined by half.

In total, the city's instances of violent crime have fallen 26% as of the latest published numbers, which came out on Tuesday.

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Despite the admission, Patel still threw his support behind Trump's plan to send the National Guard into DC in an attempt to evict unhoused people and crack down on crime.

"With President Trump and the DOJ driving this mission, we're going to clean up Washington DC the right way – lawfully – and make our nation's capital safe again," Patel said.