‘Fraud.’ ‘Troll.’: FBI Director Kash Patel clashes with Democrats at contentious hearing
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- Patel shouted over Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) during questioning on how the Trump administration has handled the Jeffrey Epstein files.
- The hearing highlighted partisan divisions, with Republicans praising Patel’s focus on violent crime while Democrats called him the ‘most partisan FBI director ever.’
WASHINGTON — FBI Director Kash Patel clashed with skeptical Democrats at a contentious Senate oversight hearing Tuesday, defending his record amid criticism that he has politicized the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency and pursued retribution against perceived adversaries of President Trump.
Patel shouted over Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) during questioning on how the Trump administration has handled the Jeffrey Epstein files and Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
“You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate,” Patel shouted at Schiff. “You are a political buffoon at best!”
Schiff tried to yell over him, saying, “You can make an internet troll the FBI director, but [he] will always be nothing more than an internet troll.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pounded his gavel repeatedly, but Patel continued.
The feud between Patel and Schiff dates back years, to when Patel was a staffer on the House Intelligence Committee and Schiff was a House member.
The appearance Tuesday before the Judiciary Committee represented the first oversight hearing of Patel’s young but tumultuous tenure.
Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, officials announced Tuesday.
It provided a high-stakes platform for him to try to demonstrate that he is the right person for the job at a time of internal upheaval and mounting concerns about political violence inside the United States — a threat laid bare by last week’s killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on a Utah college campus.
Patel, backed by Republican lawmakers who signaled their support for him, sought to keep the focus on what he said was a record of accomplishment in fighting violent crime, protecting children from abuse and disrupting the flow of fentanyl. He touted that the man suspected in Kirk’s killing was arrested within 33 hours but did not mention that he had created confusion soon after the killing by posting on social media that “the subject” was in custody.
Patel had posted in the hours after the killing that “the subject” was in custody even though the actual suspect was still at large.
“I don’t see it as a mistake. I see it as something — working with the public to identify that there was a subject in custody,” Patel told senators. He said he wanted to inform the public that a subject had been taken into custody, even though that person did not end up being the suspect in the shooting.
“Could I have been more careful in my verbiage and said we had a subject instead of the subject? Sure,” he said.
Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said it caused confusion by making it sound as though authorities had caught the person suspected of killing Kirk.
“That’s not what I said,” Patel said.
Democrats repeatedly tried to steer the hearing back to the turmoil inside the FBI and suggested his firing of experienced agents and supervisors was a troubling about-face from his confirmation hearing pledge in January that he would not look “backwards” or pursue retribution as director.
“I’m not going to mince words: You lied to us,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat.
Five agents and top-level executives were known to have been summarily fired last month in a purge that current and former officials say has contributed to declining morale. Three of them, including former acting director Brian Driscoll, sued last week. The complaint alleged that Patel indicated that he was aware that the firings were “likely illegal” but had to carry them out because he was ordered to do so from the White House.
“These allegations are a searing indictment of your tenure as FBI director,” Blumenthal said.
Patel angrily disputed the suggestion that he had lied, and said that he could not discuss the specifics of those firings due to the litigation. “Anyone that’s been terminated failed to meet the needs of the FBI and uphold their constitutional duties.”
At another point, Patel had a testy exchange with Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the committee. Durbin challenged him on an unsubstantiated theory advanced by Deputy Director Dan Bongino that the placement of pipe bombs on a Washington street ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol was an inside job.
“I find it disgusting thing that everyone and anyone would jettison our 31 years of combined experience that is now at the helm of the FBI, delivering historic results and historic speeds for the American people,” Patel said.
The FBI director was also challenged on whether he was pursuing retaliation against perceived Trump foes, including through a fresh inquiry the bureau has undertaken related to the long-concluded FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Democrats had complained about Patel’s lack of management experience and highlighted incendiary past statements that they said called his judgment into question.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse estimated that Patel had already taken some sort of adverse action against 20 of the roughly 60 people who were singled out in what the Rhode Island Democrat described as an “enemies list” in a 2023 book Patel wrote called “Government Gangsters.” The Justice Department, for instance, appeared to confirm in an unusual statement in July that it was investigating former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan, both pivotal players in the Russia saga.
“That is an entirely inaccurate presupposition,” Patel said. “I do not have an enemies list.”
Republicans eagerly rallied to Patel’s defense, with Grassley, the committee chairman, praising the director for having “begun the important work of returning the FBI to its law enforcement mission.”
“It’s well understood that your predecessor left you an FBI infected with politics,” Grassley stated.
The final round of questioning in the 4½-hour hearing came from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who called on both sides of the aisle to tone down the rhetoric in the face of escalating political violence in the U.S.
“How on earth are we de-escalating the situation with the tensions as high as they were last week with going out and saying we’re at war?” Tillis said. “There are people out here on our side of the aisle that still need to look in the mirror.”
Tucker writes for the Associated Press.
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