Kash Patel will take the helm of the Federal Bureau of Investigation amid heated internal tensions with Trump officials and broader turmoil at the Justice Department during the first weeks of the new administration.
The Senate voted 51-49 to confirm Patel on Thursday, with Republicans praising his background as a federal prosecutor and Democrats warning on the Senate floor and at a press conference outside the FBI building in Washington that the former Trump campaign surrogate is unfit for the position.
Patel, who served in the first Trump administration and has a track record of partisan and inflammatory commentary that included a book about “Government Gangsters” that lists members of what he dubbed the “Executive Branch Deep State,” is now set to lead a law enforcement agency that is charged with combating terrorism, countering foreign spies and fighting public corruption. The position has a 10-year term.
He will also take control amid stark signs of unrest at the agency, as the new administration directed the firing of a slate of senior FBI employees and has sought to impose its influence on the Justice Department through the reassignment and firing of career lawyers.
Additionally, two groups of FBI officials filed lawsuits in federal court after officials were ordered to fill out a survey asking about their role in investigations and prosecutions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including the last activity they took related to those cases.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted against Patel’s confirmation. In a statement, Collins cited those personnel actions for “a compelling need for an FBI Director who is decidedly apolitical,” and said Patel’s “numerous politically charged statements” cast doubt on his “ability to advance the FBI’s law enforcement mission in a way that is free from the appearance of political motivation.”
Murkowski said she had reservations about how his political activities might affect his leadership, and said she was disappointed that he did not take an opportunity to push back against “the administration’s decision to force the FBI to provide a list of agents involved in the January 6 investigations and prosecutions.”
“The FBI must be trusted as the federal agency that roots out crime and corruption, not focused on settling political scores,” Murkowski posted on social media.
The FBI lawsuits outlined fears that the government might release the identities of the officials involved, a move they say would endanger the safety of FBI employees and their families.
Last week, the FBI Agents Association made a plea to members of Congress, urging them to work with Trump to make sure special agents completing their probationary periods would not be fired or placed on administrative leave. The Trump administration has reportedly fired probationary employees in other government agencies.
‘Deep state’
In the past, Patel has said the top ranks of the bureau should be fired, suggested mandatory monthly scans of government devices, such as cellphones and laptops, and recommended removing the FBI headquarters from Washington “to prevent institutional capture and curb FBI leadership from engaging in political gamesmanship.”
He went further in an interview with the “Shawn Ryan Show” posted last year. “I’d shut down the FBI Hoover building on Day 1 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.”
Patel, who is a former public defender and former House staffer, has also fumed against what he calls the “deep state” and has shown steadfast loyalty to Trump.
In voting for Patel, Senate Republicans, who for years bemoaned what they called the politicization of the agency, voted for a figure who has a track record of partisan commentary and has shown a steadfast loyalty to Trump.
Instead, conservatives say he’s the right person to bring changes to an agency that has lost the public’s trust, in part due to its work investigating Trump. Senate Judiciary Chair Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, in a floor speech this week, touched on Patel’s experience, saying he has been a fighter for transparency in government and praised him as the “right man at the right time.”
Meanwhile, Democrats argued that Republicans’ vote for Patel would haunt them, and they pointed to concerns that he would wield the FBI’s sprawling investigative authority to target President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies.
At the press conference outside FBI headquarters Thursday, Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said Patel was a general in Trump’s assault on the rule of law.
“He’s an instrument of Donald Trump’s effort to destroy the Justice Department and the FBI so that he is absolutely and completely not only above the law, but beyond the law,” Welch said.
On the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., called Patel a “joke.”
“This is the worst possible moment to put a person like Kash Patel in charge of the FBI,” Murphy said. “It is heartbreaking to see so many of my Republican colleagues — many of whom I admire — put loyalty to Donald Trump ahead of loyalty to this country, and more specifically, loyalty to that sacred principle, the rule of law.”
“My prediction is that if you vote for Kash Patel, more than any other confirmation vote you make, you will come to regret this one to your grave,” Murphy said.
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