WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — Kash Patel is one step closer to leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation after Senate Republicans with jurisdiction over the judiciary advanced his nomination Thursday to the full Senate.
Lawmakers on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary voted along party lines 12-10 to send Patel’s nomination to be FBI director, a 10-year term, to the Senate floor. A vote has not yet been scheduled.
President Donald Trump’s controversial pick to lead the federal law enforcement agency attracted headlines for individually naming dozens of former “deep state” U.S. officials in his 2023 book “Government Gangsters” — a list critics have described as Patel’s “enemies list.”
Democrats also questioned Patel’s praise of Jan. 6 defendants and his embrace of QAnon conspiracy theorists during an early role with Trump’s Truth Social platform. Patel remains on the board of directors for the Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social, and has agreed to resign if confirmed as FBI director.
Patel, 44, a frequent guest on right-wing media, told podcast host Shawn Ryan last year that he’d “shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the ‘deep state.’”
But Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee backed the former prosecutor and national security official, arguing he is the right choice to lead an agency “long overdue for massive reform.”
Senators battle over nominee
Committee Chair Chuck Grassley said Patel has been subjected to “unfair attacks and character smears” during his confirmation process.
“Mr. Patel has spent his whole career fighting for righteous causes. He’s been a public defender representing the accused against the power of the state. He’s been a congressional staffer investigating the partisan weaponization of our legal system, and he served in key national security roles, protecting Americans from foreign enemies,” the Iowa Republican said just before Thursday’s vote.
Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Ashley Moody of Florida also spoke in favor of Patel ahead of the vote.
Blackburn said Patel “is going to work with me” to reveal who was involved with Jeffrey Epstein. The wealthy financier served jail time in Florida for sexually abusing a minor and died in a Manhattan jail awaiting federal prosecution on sex trafficking charges.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, said Thursday that Patel’s confirmation would be an “invitation for a political free-for-all” at the bureau.
“After reviewing Kash Patel’s record, meeting with him, questioning him at this hearing, I’m even more convinced that he has neither experience, the judgment, nor the temperament to lead the FBI,” Durbin said.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Chris Coons of Delaware, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Peter Welch of Vermont, all members of the Judiciary panel, spoke in opposition to Patel’s nomination ahead of the committee vote.
“So much of what (Patel) has written and said demonstrates that he is somebody that goes against the idea of integrity and independence that the FBI wants,” Booker said.
Delay urged
Durbin urged further delaying the committee vote after he said he had “highly credible information from multiple sources” that Patel lied to the committee during his confirmation hearing regarding his involvement in recent FBI firings.
“It is unacceptable for a nominee with no current role in government, much less at the FBI, to personally direct unjustified and potentially illegal adverse employment actions against senior career FBI leadership and other dedicated, nonpartisan law enforcement officers,” Durbin wrote. “If these allegations are true, Mr. Patel may have perjured himself before the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
Patel was asked by Booker during his Jan. 30 confirmation hearing whether he knew of “any plans or discussions to punish in any way, including termination, FBI agents or personnel associated with Trump investigations.”
Patel replied that he was “not aware” of current decisions at the agency.
Numerous FBI officials involved in the Jan. 6 attack prosecutions and the case against Trump for 2020 election interference have been fired.
The Judiciary Committee had already delayed the vote on Patel’s nomination at its Feb. 6 meeting, during which Durbin criticized Patel’s “lionization” of those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as they tried to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results. Trump, on his first day in office, granted clemency to the nearly 1,600 defendants, including the most violent and serious offenders.
Patel was one of the producers on the recorded version of the “Star-Spangled Banner” sung by jailed Jan. 6 defendants, which Trump played on the campaign trail.
Investments, foreign clients
Patel’s investments and representation of foreign clients have also drawn scrutiny. The nominee, whose net worth is as much as $15 million, earned money from the Embassy of Qatar, the Chinese online retailer Shein and foreign arms conglomerate the Czechoslovak Group, according to an analysis of his financial disclosures by The Associated Press.
The Washington Post reported on Feb. 7 that Patel had received $25,000 from a Russian filmmaker with ties to the Kremlin.
Patel’s financial disclosure was not immediately available on the U.S. Office of Government Ethics website and must be requested, which can take up to two days. Disclosures for other nominees, including those like Attorney General Pam Bondi who are now confirmed, are immediately available.
Patel signed an ethics agreement to step away from many of his business ventures if confirmed as FBI director.
Books published
Patel’s book, the full title of which is “Government Gangsters: the Deep State, the Truth and the Battle for Our Democracy,” was published by Post Hill Press in September 2023. Patel worked with Steve Bannon to produce a 2024 film based on the book.
Patel also worked with Beacon of Freedom Publishing House and Brave Books from 2022 to 2024 to publish a series of three children’s books, “The Plot Against the King,” “The Plot Against the King 2,000 Mules,” and “The Plot Against the King 3: Return of the King.” The books respectively depict a cartoon of Trump navigating the 2016 Russian election interference investigation, the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and Trump’s campaign for his second presidency.
Patel served during the first Trump administration as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, and as a senior adviser to Trump’s director of national intelligence, Rick Grenell. Patel briefly served as the chief of staff to the acting defense secretary from November 2020 to January 2021.
Prior to joining the Trump administration, Patel worked as a national security adviser on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from March 2018 to January 2019 and served as senior counsel for the committee in the months prior.
Patel was a trial attorney with the Department of Justice National Security Division from 2014 to 2017 during former President Barack Obama’s administration.
Patel began his career as a public defender in Miami, Florida.
Patel received his law degree from Pace University Law School in 2005. Patel is from Garden City, New York.
