Dancing video unrelated to alleged hack of Kash Patel's email
- Published on March 30, 2026 at 23:21
- 2 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
An Iranian-linked group claimed to have hacked Kash Patel's email account and published personal materials online, almost a month into the US-Israeli war on Iran. But a video alleged to be newly leaked footage of the US FBI director dancing has been online since at least 2020 and shows a man strutting to a Bollywood song.
"Iranian hackers have released a video purporting to show FBI Director Kash Patel," says a March 29, 2026 post on Facebook. "His Gmail account was reportedly hacked several days ago, after which his Google Drive files ended up online. The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed the breach and stated that the published materials are authentic."
A similar post on X claims: "Iranian hacker releases video of US FBI officer Kash Patel."
The video spread in multiple languages -- including French and Indonesian -- across Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X and YouTube.
It emerged after a pro-Iranian hacktivist group called the Handala Hack Team claimed on March 27 to have accessed an email account belonging to Patel and published personal photos and other contents online.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed that "malicious actors" had targeted Patel's personal email information and said it has "taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity."
Personal photos of Patel were among the materials released online, including pictures of the FBI director smoking cigars and posing with an antique car.
But the clip circulating in the wake of the hack is unrelated.
Reverse image searches revealed the footage has been online since at least July 2020, with one of the earliest posts on YouTube saying the man was dancing to the late Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar's "Sun Sahiba Sun," a song from the 1985 Bollywood romantic drama film "Ram Teri Ganga Maili" (archived here, here, here and here).
According to online plot summaries, "Ram Teri Ganga Maili" follows a woman's journey to reunite with her husband after he returns to his family home.
The man in the video appears to be imitating the choreography from a dance scene involving the actress Mandakini's character, set to "Sun Sahiba Sun."
The clip recirculated in 2022, again with no mention of Patel, who worked in the first Trump administration until 2021.
AFP has debunked other misinformation about US politics here.
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