Day: January 30, 2025

Kash Patel evaded or avoided answering key questions from Democrats at his confirmation hearing Thursday as if he were a suspect or witness in an FBI investigation rather than auditioning for the job of running the Bureau. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, rushed in to  mitigate or even block Democrats’ efforts to interrogate their client,  like criminal defense lawyers in an episode of “Law and Order.” 

 Patel, who served in the Justice Department, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Defense during Donald Trump’s first administration, was warmly welcomed by members of the committee’s Republican majority as an excellent and well qualified candidate for the post J. Edgar Hoover once occupied for 48 years. Congress subsequently limited an FBI director’s term to 10 years, so Patel, who turns 45 in late February,  could have a serious career ahead of him somewhere if Senators confirm him as FBI boss and he serves a full term of office.

Judiciary Committee Republicans were essentially unstinting not only in defending but praising Patel for his career so far and for his pledges to devote himself to focusing FBI investigations on crime and national security threats, notably including terrorism, which Patel said currently “is as high as I have ever seen it.” Democrats tried to critique and grill him on a range of issues, ranging from his alleged enthusiasm for conspiracy theories (cited by Democrat Dick Durbin) to his apparently cozy relationship with the “choir” composed of January 6 defendants who recorded a song, “Justice for All,” which Trump turned into a hit record. Committee Republicans appeared confident they could win approval for Patel’s confirmation from the full Senate, where Republicans have a three vote majority.

Patel, who was born on Long Island, recounted how his father, originally from India, subsequently moved to Uganda but had to leave during the Idi Amin dictatorship. The family moved to Canada and then the U.S. Following high school, he got a B.A. degree in history and criminal justice from the University of Richmond and then a law degree from Pace University in New York. After serving as both a public defender and federal prosecutor, Patel in 2017 joined the staff of the House Intelligence Committee, where he and the conservative California Republican who then served as the panel’s chairman, Devin Nunes, eventually became strong public defenders of Trump, who in his first term led harsh attacks against his critics. The duo’s most notable move to support the president was their production of a classified memo, later publicly released by Nunes himself, which essentially claimed that U.S. investigations of Trump were touched off by the Steele Dossier, a private detective report paid for by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. The story advanced by Nunes and Patel won—and still holds—strong credibility with Trump and his followers, which may help explain Trump’s loyalty to Patel and their loyalty to him.

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Under questioning from Judiciary Committee Republican Chairman Chuck Grassley, Patel declared there could never be a justification “for violence against law enforcement”—despite his enthusiasm for the J6 choir.  Despite an archive of internet postings showing him engaging repeatedly with posters discussing the sweeping anti-democracy conspiracy theory QAnon, Patel insisted he had “publicly rejected” what he characterized as “baseless conspiracy theories.”  Asked about a September 2023 photo of himself with Laura Loomer, a pro-Trump conspiracy enthusiast, Patel insisted it was a picture of him with “someone who had showed up at my book event.”  

His book Government Gangsters, which included  a list of 60 “members of the deep state” who should be investigated, prompted sharp queries from Judiciary Committee Democrats, who described it as an “enemies list.”  Patel called that a “total mischaracterization”.’

Victim Card

Visibly agitated at times, Patel said that he himself “been the victim of government overreach”—he had been questioned by a grand jury investigating Trump’s alleged illegal stashing of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago—and received death threats. Under questioning from Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, he said that while he saw Trump sign a declassification order related to Mar-a-Lago, he did not know what specifically had been declassified.  But he came under fire from Sen.  Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for pleading the Fifth during a Grand Jury investigation into the matter. 

“I don’t know, but he may be the first nominee for FBI director in history who felt it necessary to plead the Fifth, to say he wouldn’t testify to a grand jury because it might incriminate him,” Schiff said.Patel insisted he intended to run the FBI as a “de-weaponized, depoliticized” agency  and that any allegations that he was politically biased were “grotesquely unfair.” But Senate Democrats did not react warmly when he expressed dismay that 11,000 FBI employees— about a third of the total workforce— work in Washington, D.C. “I want them more out in the country,” Patel insisted. Such responses got approving purrs and repeated rescues from the panel’s Republicans, who praised Patel’s character and introduced letters from people praising him.     

Asked whether as FBI director he would use his position to investigate and prosecute past officials that he had criticized, including such erstwhile Trump advisors  as former Attorney General Bill Barr, Patel said: “I have no plan in going backwards.”  Likewise, although Patel in 2023 told former Trump political guru Steve Bannon that he was going to go after media who he accused of helping Joe Biden, testified Thursday he would not “go after the media.” He also said he would give up his relationship with the Trump media company TMTG, of which he has been a director, if he becomes FBI chief. 

Patel’s sometimes controversial business ventures were touched on but not deeply dug into during Thursday’s hearing. Democrats spent more time questioning Patel about “Justice for All,” the J6 Choir recording which Patel publicly endorsed. 

“My understanding is that the performers on this ‘J6 Choir’ were the rioters who are [sic] in prison,”  Patel was told by Sen. Dick Durbin. “I’m not aware of that,” Patel responded. 

Patel was also “not aware,” he said, that even while he was on Capitol Hill, at least half a dozen senior FBI officials had been ordered to retire or resign by Monday or be fired, according to a CNN report.  New Jersey Democrat  Cory Booker also asked Patel about an NBC report that an associate of Elon Musk’s Space-X  and others had been installed at FBI headquarters, “That’s news to me, Senator,” Patel said. 

“Are you aware of any plans or discussions to punish in any way, including termination, FBI agents or personnel associated with Trump investigations?”  Booker also asked him.

“I am not aware of that, senator,” Patel replied.