Kash Patel, the nominee for FBI director, is set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing Thursday, when the former federal prosecutor could face questions about his loyalty to President Donald Trump, his comments about the media and his views on a key surveillance authority.
The high-profile appearance will offer Patel, a former Trump campaign surrogate, an opportunity to defend — or explain — his track record of brash public commentary, along with his provocative ideas to overhaul the FBI.
Patel, a fierce critic of the agency’s former director, has proposed shutting down the FBI’s Washington headquarters, suggested “significantly” reducing the size of the agency’s general counsel office and called for the firing of the top ranks of the bureau.
Democrats and Republicans are expected to trade barbs at Patel’s hearing, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle spending weeks outlining their takes on his controversial nomination.
Republican senators say he will bring needed, sweeping change to an agency they accuse of being “weaponized” against conservatives. Democrats have slammed Patel’s past comments, and critics of his nomination have raised concerns that he would wield the FBI’s sprawling investigative authority to target Trump’s perceived enemies.
Those concerns have taken on new weight as the new Trump administration has taken acts of retribution, in one example firing employees who worked on the federal investigations into Trump.
The nomination of Patel is one of the clearest signs that Trump plans to exert more influence over an agency that has often functioned with a certain degree of independence from the White House, and one that elicited Trump’s fury on the campaign trail for its work investigating him.
Former FBI Director Christopher Wray formally stepped down from the post earlier this year after Trump announced Patel as his pick to lead the agency, signaling his intention to cut Wray’s 10-year term short.
Patel worked as a federal and state-level public defender before serving as a prosecutor in the Justice Department’s National Security Division, according to a questionnaire submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
He then became a staffer with the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 and joined the first Trump administration in 2019. He served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council and served a stint as principal deputy to the acting director of national intelligence.
For a three-month period at the end of Trump’s first term, he served as chief of staff to the secretary of Defense, according to the questionnaire. He has not worked at the FBI before.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in an interview with CBS that aired last week, said he’s ready to vote for Patel and said he believes “the hearing will expose him to be a very qualified man of the law.”
“I do think he has the experience. He has the trust of the president, and we’ll see how this plays out,” Graham said.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, outlined his criticism of Patel in a floor speech last week, saying Patel “has neither the experience, the temperament or the judgment to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
“He is a staunch political loyalist who has repeatedly peddled false conspiracy theories and threatened to retaliate against those who have slighted him personally and politically,” Durbin said.
Several former House Republican lawmakers, including Barbara Comstock of Virginia and David Trott of Michigan, have signed onto a letter urging senators to oppose Patel’s confirmation. The letter says confirming Patel would be a “grievous mistake.”
Past statements
Patel could face questions at the confirmation hearing about his book “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” which includes an appendix that lists 60 people he has deemed members of the “Executive Branch Deep State.”
Critics have dubbed it an enemies list. In the book, Patel fumes against what he calls the “deep state,” a pejorative term for current and former federal officials, which he said was the “most dangerous threat to our democracy.”
The list includes high-profile Democrats, first-term Trump administration officials who have rejected Trump’s false claims about 2020 election fraud and other administration officials who have since spoken out critically about Trump’s behind-the-scenes conduct.
Patel could also be asked about his anti-press rhetoric, including his idea to “come after” members of the media.
“We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice,” Patel said previously on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.
Patel’s thoughts on a key but controversial surveillance authority could also be a topic during the confirmation hearing.
In the confirmation process for key national security roles, some Senate Republicans have turned attention to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the U.S. government to collect digital communications of foreigners located outside the country.
The program causes controversy because it sweeps up the communications of Americans and allows the FBI to search through data without a warrant, using information such as an email address.
In an interview on the “Shawn Ryan Show” released last year and before he was nominated, Patel appeared critical of the way the FBI used the FISA program during Wray’s tenure.
“So because the budget of FISA was up this cycle, we demanded Congress fix it,” Patel stated, but he said the majority in the House “bent the knee” and reauthorized the authority.
“We showed you how they abused FISA once already, and then now you know about Chris Wray and all these other FISA abuses. But you trust the director of the FBI, this guy Chris Wray, who went before you and said, ‘No, [no,] don’t worry, we fixed everything, we’re good.’ And they gave him more spy powers? I can’t answer that one,” Patel said. “I couldn’t get on board with that, that legislative fix.”
FBI changes
Patel has proposed a range of changes to the FBI and been sharply critical of Wray.
“The FBI has become so thoroughly compromised that it will remain a threat to the people unless drastic measures are taken,” Patel wrote in his book.
Patel wrote that the top ranks of the bureau should be fired, and “all those who manipulated evidence, hid exculpatory information, or in any way abused their authority for political ends must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
He suggested mandatory monthly scans of government devices, such as cellphones and laptops, to “determine who has improperly transferred classified information, including to the press.” He wrote that government workers should be required to sign nondisclosure agreements and said Congress should adjust the law to allow the president to fire federal workers.
“If an individual or group of individuals within the executive branch is undermining the president, they should be removed from their posts and replaced with people who won’t undermine the president’s agenda,” Patel wrote.
Also in his book, Patel recommended removing the FBI headquarters from Washington “to prevent institutional capture and curb FBI leadership from engaging in political gamesmanship.”
He also brought up the FBI headquarters in an interview with the “Shawn Ryan Show” that was posted in September.
“I’d shut down the FBI Hoover building on day one and [reopen it the] next day as a museum of the deep state,” Patel said. “And I’d take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops. You’re cops — go be cops. Go chase down murderers and rapists and drug dealers and violent offenders.”
“What do you need 7,000 people there for?” he said.
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