Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, pledged on Thursday to shield FBI employees from “political retribution” even as the Trump administration has begun dismissing and sidelining Justice Department officials involved in investigations into the president.
During his confirmation hearing, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal pressed Patel to guarantee that he would not fire FBI agents who worked on probes into Trump’s handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Patel responded, “All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution.”
On Monday, the acting attorney general, who oversees the FBI, fired more than a dozen Justice Department lawyers who had worked on Trump-related cases, citing a lack of trust in their ability to carry out Trump’s agenda. Patel told lawmakers he was not involved in those dismissals and stated that he would adhere to FBI policies in disciplining employees.
Democrats also grilled Patel about his past remarks downplaying the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and his threats to investigate government officials and the media. While he did not directly address those comments, Patel told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “Any accusations leveled against me that I would somehow put political bias before the Constitution are grotesquely unfair.”
A staunch conservative, Patel has been one of the most outspoken critics of investigations into Trump, portraying them as efforts by a “deep state” within law enforcement and intelligence agencies to undermine the president.
However, Patel appeared to diverge from Trump on the blanket pardons for nearly 1,600 individuals charged in the Capitol riot, including those convicted of assaulting police officers.
“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 assured senators that any FBI investigations under his leadership would be conducted strictly on a factual and legal basis.
Democrat slams Patel
The panel’s leading Democrat, Dick Durbin, criticized Patel, stating that he had “neither the experience nor the temperament nor the judgment” to lead the FBI, citing officials from Trump’s first administration who had condemned him.
“Our nation needs an FBI director who understands the gravity of this mission and is ready on day one, not someone who is consumed by his own personal political grievances,” Durbin said.
Democrats also pressed Patel about claims that Trump had declassified sensitive records seized by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago residence in 2022, a claim that Trump’s lawyers in the case did not support. Patel himself was summoned before a federal grand jury in the investigation.
Although Democrats cannot block Patel’s confirmation on their own, Trump has previously succeeded in securing confirmation for one highly controversial nominee, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a 51-50 vote after Vice President JD Vance broke a tie caused by three Republican no votes. This marked the second time in U.S. history that a vice president’s vote was necessary to break a tie on a Cabinet nominee.
The committee’s leading Republican, Chuck Grassley, preemptively responded to Democratic attacks, denying that Patel had an “enemies list” of people he planned to target for investigation. He portrayed Patel as an iconoclast who had exposed corruption in federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
“Mr. Patel’s career has been a study in fighting unpopular but righteous causes,” Grassley said.
Patel had previously claimed that the FBI used undercover operatives to entrap rioters during the Capitol attack, despite a recent Justice Department inspector general report that found the FBI had 26 informants at the Capitol, but most were there independently, and none received approval to engage in criminal activity.
A former aide to then-House Intelligence Committee Republican Chairman Devin Nunes, Patel helped lead the congressional probe into the FBI’s handling of its investigation into connections between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
A Justice Department internal watchdog report later concluded that the FBI had made errors in the warrant application to conduct surveillance on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page but found no evidence of political bias.
Patel began his career as a public defender in Miami, initially handling local cases before moving to federal cases.
Before his work on Capitol Hill, he spent about three years working in counterterrorism at the Justice Department. Later, he briefly worked for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Council, and eventually as chief of staff to the defense secretary.