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Tag: derail

EXCLUSIVE: Patel camp derides Durbin accusations as ‘politically motivated’ attempt to derail FBI confirmation

EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump’s FBI director nominee, Kash Patel, pushed back Wednesday on allegations that he played a role in the firings of bureau personnel just hours after swearing not to do so during his confirmation hearing late last month – dismissing accusations from the panel’s top Democrat as a politically motivated effort to derail his confirmation.

Speaking to Fox News Digital Wednesday morning, a senior transition team official for Patel refuted the allegations made by the ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat, Dick Durbin, that Patel had orchestrated the firings after his confirmation hearing.

This person told Fox News that Patel had left Washington the night of his confirmation hearing to fly home to Las Vegas, where he has “been sitting there waiting for the process to play out.”

This person also refuted the notion that Patel has had anything to do with the firings of bureau personnel, as alleged by Durbin in Senate floor remarks the previous day.

FBI AGENTS SUE TRUMP DOJ TO BLOCK ANY PUBLIC IDENTIFICATION OF EMPLOYEES WHO WORKED ON JAN. 6 INVESTIGATIONS

Senate Judiciary ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Kash Patel and Judiciary Chariman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. ( AP/Getty Images)

“Mr. Patel has been going through the confirmation process, and everything he has done since his nomination has been above board,” this person said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “And any insinuation otherwise is false.”

In addition to his trip home to Vegas, Patel has also spent time hunting away from Washington, this person said, providing photographed evidence of Patel’s activities.

The news comes one day after Durbin’s team cited “highly credible” whistleblower reports his office had received in recent days, which they said indicated that Patel had been “personally directing the ongoing purge of FBI employees prior to his Senate confirmation for the role.”

Durbin’s staff also sent a letter Tuesday to the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, requesting an investigation into these allegations.

“I have received highly credible information from multiple sources that Kash Patel has been personally directing the ongoing purge of career civil servants at the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Durbin said in the letter to Horowitz.

“Although Mr. Patel is President Trump’s nominee to be FBI Director, he is still a private citizen with no role in government.”

If true, Durbin has alleged that Patel’s reported actions could put him on the hook for perjury.

Patel claimed during his Senate confirmation hearing late last month that he would use his role to protect agents against efforts to weaponize the bureau.

“All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution,” Patel told Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., during that hearing.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have sought to discredit Patel’s confirmation in the days and weeks ahead of his confirmation – which they reiterated last week in a press conference, after announcing they would delay his committee confirmation vote by a full week.

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Durbin told Fox News last week that their aim in delaying the hearing is to raise more public awareness about Patel’s previous actions, in hopes that doing so will shore up new opposition from some Republicans in the chamber.

Ultimately, lawmakers noted they can only delay Patel’s committee vote through next week. Beyond that, they said, it is up to Republicans.

This is a breaking news story. Check back shortly for updates.

Breanne Deppisch is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.

February 12, 2025
Senate moves full steam ahead on massive Trump budget bill after GOP divisions derail House

Senate Republicans are moving full steam ahead with their plans for a massive conservative policy overhaul through the budget reconciliation process, despite House GOP leaders still insisting their chamber is set to go first.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., unveiled a 61-page resolution that would fund President Donald Trump’s priorities for border security, fossil fuel energy, and national defense.

It would fund completion of Trump’s border wall, as well as provide dollars for more beds in detention centers at the border. The bill would also include funds to hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, more personnel patrolling the border, and to increase the number of immigration judges in order to process the backlog of existing asylum cases.

On energy, the bill is aimed at ramping up offshore drilling leases, and stopping the Biden administration’s methane emissions fee.

SCOOP: KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham unveiled a proposal to pass President Trump’s agenda on Friday. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images / Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

The legislation would also fund increased military readiness, grow the U.S. Navy, and building an “integrated air and missile defense to counter threats,” according to a summary provided by Graham’s office.

Graham also signaled the bill would be deficit-neutral, with his press release stating that its $342 billion in new spending will be offset by the same amount of money in savings.

Per the Senate’s plan to split Trump’s reconciliation priorities into two bills, it’s expected that extensions to Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – as well as other key Trump proposals, such as eliminating taxes on tipped and overtime wages – will be in a second plan released at a later date.

Republicans plan to use their majorities in the House and Senate to pass a wide swath of Trump policy initiatives, from extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to funneling more cash to operations at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The budget reconciliation process makes that possible by lowering the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to a simple 51-seat majority. Because the House already operates on a simple majority threshold, it will allow Republicans to skirt Democratic opposition to pass their agenda – provided the measures included involve budgetary or other fiscal matters, as reconciliation rules call for.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., intends for the House to advance a bill first. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

The first step in reconciliation is advancing a resolution through the House and Senate budget committees, which will then give instructions to other committees of jurisdiction that will eventually form a final bill.

The Senate’s plan differs significantly from the House’s intended approach.

While both sides agree on what should be passed via reconciliation, House GOP leaders and Republicans on the Ways & Means Committee are concerned that the intense political maneuvering the process takes will mean they run out of time before passing a second bill with Trump’s tax cuts at the end of this year.

BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS

A Ways & Means Committee memo sent earlier this year projected the average American household could see taxes rise by over 20% if those provisions expire at the end of 2025.

Trump himself has repeatedly called for “one big, beautiful bill,” but said he ultimately was not concerned about the packaging as long as all of his priorities were passed.

House Republicans had intended to move one bill through their budget panel this week, but the process was stalled as spending hawks pushed for deeper funding cuts than what GOP leaders initially proposed.

Conservatives have insisted that any plan Republicans pass must be deficit-reducing or deficit-neutral.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters on Friday morning that he was playing “phone tag” with Graham due to their schedules but signaled he still intended for the House to move ahead with their plan next week.

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“I sent him a text message early this morning and explained where we are in the process and how it’s moving aggressively,” Johnson said.

He told reporters he hoped for a House Budget Committee markup of the bill as early as Tuesday.

Graham, meanwhile, intends to advance his bill through committee on Wednesday and Thursday.

Senate Republicans are meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night.

Fox News’ Daniel Scully contributed to this report.

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com

February 7, 2025
Cruz spearheads effort to derail nuclear waste dumping in oil-rich area of Texas

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is leading a bipartisan amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to validate a lower court ruling preventing nuclear waste from being deposited in his state.

Cruz, along with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, wants the top court to uphold a lower court ruling that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) lacks authority to license nuclear waste storage facilities.

They argue the proposed location of the nuclear waste sites poses “an enormous threat to the country’s security and economic well-being.”

The case, NRC v. Texas, will decide “whether the Commission has authority to issue the license under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 or the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982.”

TOP TRADE ASSOCIATION SENDS LETTERS CALLING ON BIG CHANGES IN THREE KEY DEPARTMENTS: ‘UNLEASH AMERICAN ENERGY’

The Supreme Court in October agreed to take up the case after the Biden administration appealed a Fifth Circuit decision holding that the NRC lacked authority to license nuclear waste storage facilities. The license, which was granted to the Biden administration and a company to build a waste storage facility in western Texas, was challenged by Texas and New Mexico.

The bipartisan amicus brief argues the proposed location of nuclear waste sites in Texas poses “an enormous threat to the country’s security and economic well-being.”

Interim Storage Partners planned on operating the nuclear storage facility in Andrews County, Texas, a decision that spurred backlash because of the facility’s location within the Permian Basin.

“The Permian Basin is our nation’s leading oil- and gas-producing region and a critical pillar of America’s energy security,” Cruz told Fox News Digital in a statement. “I support the State of Texas in opposing the NRC’s federal overreach and will keep fighting to ensure West Texas remains the energy power house it is today.”

The brief argues that placing the storage facilities near the Permian Basin makes the area “an enticing target for adversaries,” therefore threatening the oil-producing region. The brief says neither the parties hoping to operate the facilities nor the NRC are “equipped to consider the broader ramifications” of placing the facilities in the area.

ALASKA LEADERS CHEER TRUMP OIL AND GAS DRILLING EXECUTIVE ORDER

Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cueller and Republican Reps. August Pfluger and Ronny Jackson have also joined Cruz’s brief.

“Energy independence is national security, which is why I support the scale-up of all reliable and economical energy sources, including nuclear, to meet our rising energy demand,” Arrington said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “However, I will not allow Washington to impose its will on West Texas regarding the temporary disposal of high-level nuclear waste simply because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can’t — or won’t — finalize permanent storage elsewhere.”

Arrington said Texas “and the people of Andrews should make the decision” rather than “some nameless, faceless bureaucrat in Washington, D.C.”

The amicus brief states that the location of the waste sites — while “remote” — “present an enormous threat to the country’s security and economic well-being.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas (pictured), along with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, wants the Supreme Court to uphold a lower court ruling that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission lacks authority to license nuclear waste storage facilities. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“Energy security is national security. That adage remains as true now as it did in the 1970s, when OPEC strategically curtailed its oil supply to the United States,” the filing continues.

BIDEN HAD NO IDEA HE SIGNED NATURAL GAS EXPORT PAUSE, JOHNSON SAYS

“And although we’ve come a long way since then — building up domestic energy production capacity and decreasing dependence on fossil fuels — recent events are a vivid reminder of the importance of energy independence,” the amicus continued. “They’ve also shown that the Permian Basin has global importance.”

The high court is set to hear oral arguments in the case in early March. (Ricky Carioti /The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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The high court is set to hear oral arguments in the case in early March.

Haley Chi-Sing is a Writer for Fox News Digital. You can reach her at @haleychising on X.

January 24, 2025