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, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A former intelligence and Defense Department official in Trump’s first term, Patel has supported reshaping the FBI, including by expanding its role to carry out Trump's mission targeting immigration.
He has been a vocal critic of past FBI investigations into Trump, including on Trump's mishandling of classified documents, his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and debunked allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Patel has been panned for his lack of management experience compared to past FBI directors and for his many incendiary past statements, including calling investigators who probed Trump "government gangsters" and claiming that at least some defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot were "political prisoners."
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, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Patel said at his confirmation hearing last month that Democrats were taking some of his comments out of context or misunderstanding his point, including when he proposed shutting down the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. and turning it into a museum for the "deep state." Patel also denied the accusation that his book's inclusion of a list of government officials who he claimed were part of the "deep state" constituted an "enemies list," pushing back on that allegation as a "total mischaracterization."
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The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 along party lines last week to advance his nomination to the full Senate.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-advances-nomination-kash-patel-trumps-pick-fbi-director