Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, pushed back in his confirmation hearing after he was grilled on the president’s pardoning of January 6 rioters.
“So do you think that America is safer because the 1600 people have been given an opportunity to come out of serving their sentences and live in our communities again?” Dem. Sen. Dick Durbin asked Patel in Thursday’s hearing, pressing him on January 6 rioters who assaulted police officers having their sentences commuted earlier this month.
Patel responded with a reference to Biden’s decision in the final hours of his presidency to free Leonard Peltier, a far-left activist convicted in the 1975 murders of two FBI special agents, Ronald Williams and Jack Coler, who were gunned down in a shootout in South Dakota.
“Senator, I have not looked at all 1600 individual cases,” Patel said.
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Dem Sen. Dick Durbin (Left) and FBI Director nominee Kash Patel (Right)(AP/Reuters)
“I have always advocated for imprisoning those that cause harm to our law enforcement and civilian communities. I also believe America is not safer because President Biden’s commutation of a man who murdered two FBI agents. Agent Coler and Williams family deserve better than to have the man that point blank range fired a shotgun into their heads and murdered them, released from prison. So it goes both ways.”
Durbin responded by downplaying the comparison between Peltier and January 6 rioters.
MAJOR FBI CHANGES KASH PATEL COULD MAKE ON DAY 1 IF CONFIRMED AS DIRECTOR
Committee chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., speaks during a hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
“Leonard Peltier was in prison for 45 years,” Durbin responded. “He’s 80 years old, and he was sentenced to home confinement. So he’s not free. As you might have just suggested. He killed two FBI agents. That he did, and he went to prison for it and should have. My question to you, though, is, do you think America’s safer because President Trump issued these pardons to 1600 of these criminal defendants, many of whom violently assaulted our police in capital?”
Patel responded, “Senator, America will be safe when we don’t have 200,000 drug overdoses in two years, America will be safe when we don’t have 50 homicides a day.”
Kash Patel, a former chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, speaks during a campaign event for Republican election candidates(Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Conservatives and supporters of Patel on social media praised Patel for his response.
“Brutal reality check,” political commentator and Confirm 47 executive director Camryn Kinsey posted on X.
In his opening remarks, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said, “Public trust in the FBI is low.”
“Only 41% of the American public thinks the FBI is doing a good job. This is the lowest rating in a century,” he continued.
Grassley touted Patel’s experience as a public defender and at the Justice Department, as well as his involvement in the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2017 to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.
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Patel has “managed large intelligence and defense bureaucracies, identified and countered national security threats, prosecuted and defended criminals,” Grassley said. “He has done this while fighting for transparency and accountability in the government,” giving him “precisely the qualifications we need at this time” to head up the bureau.
Patel’s nomination has sparked early criticism from some Democrats ahead of his confirmation hearing, who have cited his previous vows to prosecute journalists and career officials at the Justice Department and FBI that he sees as being part of the “deep state.”
Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].
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President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, is expected to trade barbs with lawmakers in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Patel, a former public defender, Department of Justice official and longtime Trump ally, will join the Senate committee at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, when lawmakers are anticipated to grill the nominee on plans detailed in his 2023 book to overhaul the FBI, his crusade against the “deep state” and his resume, as Democrats argue the nominee lacks the qualifications for the role.
The president and his allies, however, staunchly have defended Patel, with Senate Judiciary member Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., arguing that Democrats are “fearful” of Patel’s nomination and confirmation due to “what he’s going to reveal” to the general public.
“They are very fearful of Kash Patel, because Kash Patel knows what Adam Schiff and some of the others did with Russia collusion, and they know that he he knows – the dirt on them, if you will – and I think they’re fearful of what he’s going to do and what he’s going to reveal,” Blackburn said on Fox News on Sunday.
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President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, is expected to trade barbs with lawmakers in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Patel, a New York native, worked as a public defender in Florida’s Miami-Dade after earning his law degree in 2005 from Pace University in New York City.
Patel’s national name recognition grew under the first Trump administration, when he worked as the national security advisor and senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence under the leadership of Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. Patel became known as the man behind the “Nunes Memo” – a four-page document released in 2018 that revealed improper use of surveillance by the FBI and the Justice Department in the Russia investigation into Trump.
Patel was named senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council in 2019. In that role, he assisted the Trump White House in eliminating foreign terrorist leadership, such as ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019 and al Qaeda terrorist Qasim al-Raymi in 2020, according to his biography. His efforts ending terrorist threats under the Trump administration came after he won a DOJ award in 2017 for his prosecution and conviction of 12 terrorists responsible for the World Cup bombings in 2010 in Uganda under the Obama administration.
Following the 2020 election, Patel remained a steadfast ally of Trump’s, joining the 45th president during his trial in Manhattan in the spring of 2024, and echoing that the United States’ security and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, need to be overhauled.
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Kash Patel worked as a public defender in Florida’s Miami-Dade after earning his law degree in 2005 from Pace University in New York City. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Patel underscored in his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters,” that “deep state” government employees have politicized and weaponized the law enforcement agency – and explicitly called for the revamp of the FBI in a chapter dubbed “Overhauling the FBI.”
“Things are bad. There’s no denying it,” he wrote in the book. “The FBI has gravely abused its power, threatening not only the rule of law, but the very foundations of self-government at the root of our democracy. But this isn’t the end of the story. Change is possible at the FBI and desperately needed.”
“The fact is we need a federal agency that investigates federal crimes, and that agency will always be at risk of having its powers abused,” he wrote, advocating the firing of “corrupt actors,” “aggressive” congressional oversight over the agency and the complete overhaul of special counsels.
FORMER TRUMP OFFICIALS REJECT WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIM THAT FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE KASH PATEL BROKE HOSTAGE PROTOCOL
Patel adds in his book: “Most importantly, we need to get the FBI the hell out of Washington, D.C. There is no reason for the nation’s law enforcement agency to be centralized in the swamp.”
Trump heralded the book as a “roadmap” to exposing bad actors in the federal government and said it is a “blueprint to help us take back the White House and remove these Gangsters from all of Government.”
Patel has spoken out against a number of high-profile investigations and issues he sees within the DOJ in the past few years. He slammed the department, for example, for allegedly burying evidence related to the identity of a suspect who allegedly planted pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties in Washington, D.C., a day ahead of Jan. 6, 2021.
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Patel has also said Trump could release both the Jeffrey Epstein client list and Sean “Diddy” Combs party attendee lists, which could expose those allegedly involved in sex and human trafficking crimes.
Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin, Amy Klobuchar and Mazie Hirono, who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee.(Getty Images)
Senate Democrats received an anonymous whistleblower report that was publicly reported Monday alleging Patel violated protocol during a hostage rescue mission in October 2020, an allegation Trump’s orbit has brushed off.
The whistleblower claimed that Patel leaked to the Wall Street Journal that two Americans and the remains of a third were being transferred to U.S. custody from Yemen, where they had been held hostage by Houthi rebels, before the hostages were actually in U.S. custody. Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, obtained the whistleblower report.
A transition official pushed back on the report in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, saying Patel has a “track record of success.”
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“Mr. Patel was a public defender, decorated prosecutor, and accomplished national security official that kept Americans safe,” the official said. “He has a track record of success in every branch of government, from the courtroom to congressional hearing room to the situation room. There is no veracity to this anonymous source’s complaints about protocol.”
Kash Patel has spoken out against a number of high-profile investigations and issues he sees within the DOJ in the past few years.(Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
Alexander Gray, who served as chief of staff for the White House National Security Council under Trump’s first administration, called the allegation “simply absurd.”
Patel’s nomination comes after six of Trump’s nominees were confirmed by the Senate, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth – who also was viewed as a nominee who faced an uphill confirmation battle.
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The Senate schedule this week was packed with hearings besides Patel’s, with senators grilling Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday and also holding the hearing for Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to serve as director of national intelligence.
Kash Patel is a former public defender, Department of Justice official and longtime ally of President Donald Trump.(Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)
Patel heads into his hearing armed with a handful of high-profile endorsements, including the National Sheriffs’ Association and National Police Association.
Carl and Marsha Mueller, the parents of ISIS murder victim Kayla Mueller, also notably endorsed Patel, Fox News Digital exclusively reported on Tuesday. Patel helped oversee a military mission in 2019 that killed ISIS leader al-Baghdadi, who was believed to have repeatedly tortured and raped Kayla Mueller before her death in 2015.
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Patel “loves his country. He loves the people of this country,” Marsha Mueller told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview via Zoom on Monday morning. “To us, you know, he is a person that we would go to for help. And he is so action oriented.”
“Just like Trump,” Carl Mueller added to his wife’s comments on Patel’s action-motivated personality.
Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., is going all in for President Donald Trump’s controversial FBI director nominee, Kash Patel, despite being considered a wildcard vote ahead of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s nomination.
In a significant show of support, Tillis will introduce Patel in the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing Thursday morning. His speech will be short and sweet, Tillis explained.
“I will be sharing about 700 words on his background, his upbringing, his work as a prosecutor, his work in the administration,” the Republican shared in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
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Tillis is going all in on Patel after waiting until the last minute to support Hegseth.(Getty Images)
The senator will also distribute several versions of a Patel-themed bingo game to his colleagues on the committee.
The “K$H Bingo” game includes subjects Tillis expects to be brought up by Democrats during the hearing. The sheet includes subjects such as “Deep State,” “Enemies List” and section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), among others.
Sen. Thom Tillis created a bingo sheet for a Senate Judiciary hearing.(Fox News Digital)
“I’m also going to be providing a bingo card because I know what everybody else is going to bring up,” he said. “We know what the words are. And they already started it, because when they ran out of things to attack [attorney general nominee] Pam Bondi on, they started attacking Kash.”
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Patel has been meeting with senators on Capitol Hill.(Getty Images)
“We know what they’re going to do. And I want to make it clear to them there’s no Perry Mason moment,” the North Carolina senator said. “I’m not going to let innuendo and rumors rule the day. I’m going to hold them accountable.”
Tillis’ hard push for Patel to be advanced and confirmed by the Senate comes just days after Hegseth’s confirmation came down to his vote, which wasn’t at all assured to be in Hegseth’s favor.
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It wasn’t until several minutes before the Hegseth vote that Tillis released a statement revealing he would support Hegseth. He previously told reporters he was still doing due diligence after new allegations surfaced against the nominee.
Hegseth’s former sister-in-law had claimed in an affidavit that Hegseth abused alcohol and made his ex-wife, Samantha Hegseth, fear for her safety. Tillis told reporters only hours before the confirmation vote he was looking for any corroborating evidence regarding the allegations.
Hegseth was confirmed after Vice President JD Vance broke the tie.(Roberto Schmidt/AFP)
Hegseth answered additional last-minute questions from Tillis, which proved to be to the senator’s satisfaction, since he ultimately voted yes and secured Hegseth’s confirmation.
“Look, I have an obligation to one person in advise and consent, and that is the president of the United States. I take it seriously,” the senator explained.
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Tillis waited until the last minute to share his stance on Hegseth.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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“I take it very seriously,” he reiterated. “I did with Pete. I ultimately voted for him and had to dispose of the allegations or assess the allegations that came at the eleventh hour.”
The North Carolina Republican also shared that he thinks his support will be beneficial for Patel.
“I believe I’ve established — even though I can be a pain to some people — as tedious as I can get with completing my due diligence. I think that it brings with it a certain amount of credibility, and that’s why it’s so important to me. I have to be consistent,” Tillis said.
Julia Johnson is a politics writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business, leading coverage of the U.S. Senate. She was previously a politics reporter at the Washington Examiner.
FIRST ON FOX: A nationwide group of former Federal Bureau of Investigation agents has sent a letter to Senate leadership in support of Trump FBI Director nominee Kash Patel making the case that the bureau is “broken” and in desperate need of a new direction.
“As a group of retired FBI Special Agents and former Intelligence Analysts from across the country dedicated to restoring public trust in the FBI and returning the FBI to its original mission, we support President Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel as the FBI’s next Director,” the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, signed by over 50 former and retired FBI agents from Reform The Bureau said.
The letter was sent to Republican Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Dick Durbin, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“Many Americans have lost faith in the FBI, and for good reason,” the letter explains. “The FBI is broken. And with this loss of trust has come a rise in threats at home and abroad. Drug cartels and Mexican gangs have taken control of the border and have infiltrated cities across the country bringing violent crime and drugs with them. At the same time, China has grown more brazen, engaging in espionage that robs U.S. businesses of their intellectual property and undermines our national security.”
FORMER TRUMP OFFICIALS REJECT WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIM THAT FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE KASH PATEL BROKE HOSTAGE PROTOCOL
Kash Patel’s FBI Director confirmation hearing will be held on Thursday(Getty Images)
“Terrorist groups are on the rise again in the Middle East, with unknown numbers having flooded into our country over the past four years through a wide-open border. Just as these many, varied threats have increased, the FBI has been used as a tool in the weaponization of the Department of Justice to go after its political enemies. Lives have been shattered and the targets of these weaponized investigations have been forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of their own personal funds to defend themselves and their reputations. This needs to stop.”
The former agents wrote that the bureau is in “desperate need of a highly capable, non-partisan, and legally compliant FBI it can trust” right now “more than ever” and made the case that Patel is the person to make that a reality.
The letter explained that as both a public defender and prosecutor, Patel has “operated on both sides of the justice system,” which gives him a “unique perspective” to understand the need to both enforce the law and respect the rights of the accused.
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President Donald Trump has nominated longtime ally Kashyap “Kash” Patel, who has been a frequent and harsh critic of the FBI, to serve as the bureau’s next director.(Reuters)
“As a former congressional aide, he understands the importance of congressional oversight and the need for the FBI to be responsive and transparent to members of Congress as they perform this important function,” the letter states. “And as a former Executive Branch national security official who has served at the National Security Council, at the Directorate of Intelligence, and at the Pentagon, he understands the scope of national security threats our country faces. Mr. Patel also understands how organizations such as the FBI function and collaborate with other agencies to keep America safe, and the need for highly capable but legally compliant agencies to take on these threats and protect the American people.”
“Never has the FBI faced such an urgent and compelling need for comprehensive reform as it does today. Mr. Patel has proven he possesses the breadth of experience required to address these challenges. His leadership, expertise, and vision make him uniquely qualified to guide the FBI through this pivotal moment. For these reasons, we stand in full support of Kash Patel’s nomination.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Patel spokesperson Erica Knight said, “The endorsement from these former FBI agents and intelligence analysts underscores what so many Americans already know—Kash Patel is the principled leader we need to restore trust in the FBI and refocus it on its core mission of protecting the American people.”
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Patel is set to join the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday as the final leg of his nomination process kicks off in earnest. Patel has been on Capitol Hill meeting with Senate lawmakers to rally support for his nomination, earning praise from conservative lawmakers such as Tennessee Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, as well as endorsements from key law enforcement groups, such as the National Sheriffs’ Association.
Patel is expected to face an uphill battle overall to secure the nomination, as Democrats balk that he lacks the qualifications to lead the law enforcement agency and would politicize the agency.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].
Senate Democrats have obtained a whistleblower report claiming that President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, violated protocol during a hostage rescue mission in October 2020.
The whistleblower letter, obtained by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., claimed that Patel leaked news that two Americans and the remains of a third were being transferred to U.S. custody from Yemen, where they had been held hostage by Houthi rebels. The whistleblower claims Patel leaked news of the trade to the Wall Street Journal hours before the hostages were actually in U.S. custody, potentially endangering the deal.
The protocol of the multi-agency group in charge of the mission was to withhold information about hostage deals until the subjects were both in U.S. custody and their families had been notified, according to the whistleblower.
A transition official pushed back on the report in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, saying Patel has a “track record of success.”
“Mr. Patel was a public defender, decorated prosecutor, and accomplished national security official that kept Americans safe,” the official said. “He has a track record of success in every branch of government, from the court room to congressional hearing room to the situation room. There is no veracity to this anonymous source’s complaints about protocol.”
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FBI nominee Kash Patel allegedly violated protocol during a hostage exchange deal, according to a new whistleblower report obtained by Senate Democrats.(Reuters)
In the October 2020 case, the deal went forward without any issues, with the two Americans and the remains of the third being transferred to U.S. custody. In exchange, the U.S. arranged for the release of some 200 Houthi fighters being held prisoner in Saudi Arabia.
Alexander Gray, who served as Chief of Staff for the White House National Security Council under Trump’s first administration, also called the allegations “simply absurd.”
Robert C. Obrien, who served as National Security Advisor from 2019 to 2021, argued that the whistleblower was jeopardizing decades of bipartisan work on hostage deals by coming forward.
Senate Democrats delivered the whistleblower letter on Monday morning to Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Acting Treasury Secretary David Lebryk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CBS News reported.
The report comes just days before Patel is set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for an extensive confirmation hearing.
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The Senate’s “advice and consent” role allows the body to review the president’s appointments and provide oversight on key positions. The picks require a majority vote in the Senate with Republicans holding a 53-47 vote advantage over Democrats.
Sen. Dick Durbin obtained the whistleblower report relating to Patel.(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Patel has called for radical changes at the FBI and was a fierce and vocal critic of the bureau’s work as it investigated ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
He held numerous national security roles during the first Trump administration and was the chief investigator in the congressional probe into alleged Trump-Russia collusion, uncovering government surveillance abuse that led to the appointment of two special counsels: one who determined that there had been no such collusion and another who determined the entire premise of the FBI’s original investigation was bogus.
Several of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees face rough paths toward nomination.(Evan Vucci/AP)
Patel was an integral part of the creation of a memo released by then-Chair Devin Nunes in February 2018, which detailed the DOJ’s and FBI’s surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
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He’s been a loyal ally to Trump for years, finding common cause over their shared skepticism of government surveillance and the “deep state” — a catchall used by Trump to refer to unelected members of government bureaucracy.
Fox News’ Michael Dorgan contributed to this report
Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to [email protected], or on Twitter: @Hagstrom_Anders.
