FBI nominee Kash Patel confirmed in narrow Senate vote
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, calls out the Democrats’ behavior during the confirmation hearings on ‘Hannity.’
The Senate on Thursday voted 51-49 to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted “yes” on the conservative firebrand’s confirmation, even while moderates Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted “no.”
A vote to invoke cloture and begin two hours of debate on the nominee passed 51 to 47 earlier Thursday.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted earlier this month, 12 to 10, to advance Patel to the full floor for a vote.
Still, Patel faced a rockier path to confirmation, even in the Republican-majority chamber, after Democrats on the panel used their political weight to delay Patel’s confirmation vote earlier this month.
TRUMP FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE KASH PATEL PICKS UP SUPPORT FROM KEY GOP SENATOR
Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s choice to be director of the FBI, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Top Judiciary Democrat Dick Durbin claimed on the Senate floor that Patel had been behind recent mass firings at the FBI, citing what he described as “highly credible” whistleblower reports indicating Patel had personally directed the ongoing purge of FBI employees prior to his confirmation.
But that was sharply refuted by Senate Republicans, who described the allegation as a baseless and politically motivated attempt to delay Patel’s confirmation, and by a Patel aide, who described Durbin’s claim as categorically false.
This person told Fox News Digital that Patel flew home to Las Vegas after his confirmation hearing and had “been sitting there waiting for the process to play out.”
Patel, a vociferous opponent of the investigations into President Donald Trump and one who served at the forefront of Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims, vowed during his confirmation hearing last month that he would not engage in political retribution against agents who worked on the classified documents case against Trump and other politically sensitive matters.
But his confirmation comes at a time when the FBI’s activities, leadership and personnel decisions are being closely scrutinized for signs of politicization or retaliation.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Donald Trump have promised to reform the FBI and end political “weaponization” of law enforcement. (Getty Images | iStock)
Thousands of FBI agents and their superiors were ordered to fill out a questionnaire detailing their roles in the Jan. 6 investigation, prompting concerns of retaliation or retribution.
A group of FBI agents filed an emergency lawsuit this month seeking to block the public identification of any agents who worked on the Jan. 6 investigations, in an attempt to head off what they described as potentially retaliatory efforts against personnel involved.
“There will be no politicization at the FBI,” Patel told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing. “There will be no retributive action.”
But making good on that promise could prove to be complicated.
Trump told reporters this month that he intends to fire “some” of the FBI personnel involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, characterizing the agents’ actions as “corrupt,” even as he stopped short of providing any additional details as to how he reached that conclusion.
“We had some corrupt agents,” Trump told reporters, adding that “those people are gone, or they will be gone — and it will be done quickly, and very surgically.”
The White House has not responded to questions over how it reached that conclusion, or how many personnel could be impacted, though a federal judge in D.C. agreed to consider the lawsuit.
4 OF THE BIGGEST CLASHES BETWEEN PATEL, SENATE DEMS AT HIS CONFIRMATION HEARING
And in another message meant to assuage senators, Patel said he didn’t find it feasible to require a warrant for intelligence agencies to surveil U.S. citizens suspected to be involved in national security matters, referring to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
“Having a warrant requirement to go through that information in real time is just not comported with the requirement to protect American citizens,” Patel said. “It’s almost impossible to make that function and serve the national, no-fail mission.”
Patel has faced steep Democratic opposition throughout the confirmation process. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
“Get a warrant” had become a rallying cry of right-wing conservatives worried about the privacy of U.S. citizens, and almost derailed the reauthorization of the surveillance program entirely. Patel said the program has been misused, but he does not support making investigators go to court and plea their case before being able to wiretap any U.S. citizen.
Patel held a number of national security roles during Trump’s first administration — chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence and National Security Council official.
FORMER TRUMP OFFICIALS REJECT WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIM THAT FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE KASH PATEL BROKE HOSTAGE PROTOCOL
He worked as a senior aide on counterterrorism for former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, where he fought to declassify records he alleged would show the FBI’s application for a surveillance warrant for 2016 Trump campaign aide Carter Page was illegitimate, and served as a national security prosecutor in the Justice Department.
Trump has called Patel the right man to clean up the FBI. (AP/iStock)
In public comments, Patel has suggested he would refocus the FBI on law enforcement and away from involvement in any prosecutorial decisions.
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, he suggested his top two priorities are to “let good cops be cops” and transparency, which he described as “essential.”
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“If confirmed, I will focus on streamlining operations at headquarters while bolstering the presence of field agents across the nation,” Patel wrote. “Collaboration with local law enforcement is crucial to fulfilling the FBI’s mission.”
He went on: “Members of Congress have hundreds of unanswered requests to the FBI. If confirmed, I will be a strong advocate for congressional oversight, ensuring that the FBI operates with the openness necessary to rebuild trust by simply replying to lawmakers.”
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Patel has suggested his top two priorities were ‘let good cops be cops’ and ‘transparency is essential’
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Trump Administration Live Updates: Senate Confirms Kash Patel as F.B.I. Chief
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Senate confirms Kash Patel as Trump’s FBI director
The Senate voted on Thursday to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director, installing a staunch loyalist of President Donald Trump and conservative firebrand at the head of the nation’s top law enforcement agency.
The nomination faced intense scrutiny from Democrats on Capitol Hill who have warned that Patel is poised to use the position to seek retribution against Trump’s perceived political enemies.
During his Senate confirmation hearing, Patel said there will be “no politicization” at the FBI and “no retributive actions” and accused Democrats of cherry-picking excerpts of old comments. “Snippets of information are often misleading,” Patel said at one point.
The role of FBI director is supposed to be a 10-year term to insulate the position from politics. But after winning back the White House, Trump made clear that he wanted then-FBI chief Chris Wray out, leading Wray to resign and paving the way for Patel to be confirmed.
Republicans have defended Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, arguing that Patel will bring needed transparency to the FBI and dismissing controversial past statements as hyperbole.
Senate Republicans have now approved a slate of nominees who initially faced questions over whether they would be able to win confirmation, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services, Pete Hegseth as defense secretary and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
As a Republican congressional aide and Trump national security staffer, Patel fought to declassify and release documents to try to undercut the FBI’s investigation into connections between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.
During his confirmation hearing, Democrats focused in on Patel’s record – in TV interviews, podcast appearances, his books and social media posts – of calling for punishments against the people he believes are part of the “deep state” that has attempted to undermine Trump.
They raised concerns about what they called an “enemies list,” from Patel’s 2023 book, “Government Gangsters.” CNN has reported that some of the 60 officials on that list are taking drastic steps to protect their families, fearing that Patel will weaponize his FBI powers.
“I have no interest, no desire, and will not, if confirmed, go backwards,” Patel said. “There will be no politicization at the FBI. There will be no retributive actions taken … should I be confirmed as the FBI director.”
He later said, “It’s not an enemies list – that is a total mischaracterization.”
CNN’s Morgan Rimmer, Ted Barrett, Marshall Cohen and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.
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