The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to advance Kash Patel’s nomination for FBI director to the Senate floor after a fiery confirmation hearing last month and fierce opposition from Democrats.
Committee members voted 12-to-10 Thursday to advance Patel to the full floor vote, which could come before the chamber as early as next week.
The vote comes after Democrats had successfully delayed Patel’s committee vote by seven days last week, in an effort to force the Trump nominee to testify a second time.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa., said attempts by Judiciary ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and others to force Patel to testify again were ‘baseless’ as he already sat before the committee for more than five hours and disclosed ‘thousands of pages’ of records to the panel, as well as nearly 150 pages of responses to lawmakers’ written questions.
‘Now we all know that Mr. Patel, and other nominees, undergo rigorous vetting’ before their Senate confirmation hearings, Grassley said Thursday before the committee vote.
The Senate Judiciary Committee ‘has examined every detail of [Patel’s] life,’ Grassley said Thursday, ‘and he has been subjected to relentless attacks on his character during this whole period of time.’
The vote comes after Durbin alleged earlier this week on the Senate floor that Patel had been behind mass firings at the FBI, citing what he described as ‘highly credible’ whistleblower reports indicating Patel had been ‘personally directing the ongoing purge of FBI employees prior to his Senate confirmation for the role.’
An aide to Patel denied Durbin’s claim, telling Fox News Digital the nominee flew home to Las Vegas after his confirmation hearing and has ‘been sitting there waiting for the process to play out.’
Patel, a vociferous opponent to the investigations into President Donald Trump and who was at the forefront of his 2020 election fraud claims, vowed during his confirmation hearing that he would not engage in political retribution.
However, the conservative firebrand was likely chosen for his desire to upend the agency.
In his 2023 book, ‘Government Gangsters,’ he described the FBI as ‘a tool of surveillance and suppression of American citizens’ and ‘one of the most cunning and powerful arms of the Deep State.’
Patel has said intelligence officials are ‘intent’ on undermining the president, but he promised he would not go after agents who worked on the classified documents case against Trump.
‘There will be no politicization at the FBI,’ Patel said. ‘There will be no retributive action.’
Additionally, in another message meant to assuage senators’ concerns, Patel said he did not find it feasible to require a warrant for intelligence agencies to surveil U.S. citizens suspected to be involved in national security matters, referring to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
‘Having a warrant requirement to go through that information in real time is just not comported with the requirement to protect American citizens,’ Patel said. ‘It’s almost impossible to make that function and serve the national, no-fail mission.’
‘Get a warrant’ had become a rallying cry of right-wing conservatives worried about the privacy of U.S. citizens and almost derailed the reauthorization of the surveillance program entirely. Patel said the program has been misused, but he does not support making investigators go to court and plead their case before being able to wiretap any U.S. citizen.
Patel also seemed to break with Trump during the hearing on the pardons granted to 1,600 persons who had been prosecuted for their involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, particularly around those who engaged in violence and had their sentences commuted.
‘I have always rejected any violence against law enforcement,’ Patel said. ‘I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual that committed violence against law enforcement.’
Patel held a number of national security roles during Trump’s first administration – chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence, and National Security Council official.
He worked as a senior aide on counterterrorism for former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, where he fought to declassify records he alleged would show the FBI’s application for a surveillance warrant for 2016 Trump campaign aide Carter Page was illegitimate, and served as a national security prosecutor in the Justice Department.
Patel’s public comments suggest he would refocus the FBI on law enforcement and away from involvement in any prosecutorial decisions.
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, he suggested his top two priorities were ‘let good cops be cops’ and ‘transparency is essential.’
‘If confirmed, I will focus on streamlining operations at headquarters while bolstering the presence of field agents across the nation. Collaboration with local law enforcement is crucial to fulfilling the FBI’s mission,’ he said.
Patel went on, saying, ‘Members of Congress have hundreds of unanswered requests to the FBI. If confirmed, I will be a strong advocate for congressional oversight, ensuring that the FBI operates with the openness necessary to rebuild trust by simply replying to lawmakers.’