OAN Staff James Meyers
10:53 AM – Thursday, February 13, 2025
Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI Director, Kash Patel was approved by a Senate panel in a party-line vote Thursday, which now moves him to a final confirmation vote possibly next week.
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All 12 GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to get Patel to the confirmation hearing, with all 10 Democrats voting against him.
Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, said Patel was falsely claiming that he wasn’t aware of the recent firings of senior FBI officials and said he has been working behind the scenes since Trump took back the White House.
Durbin pleaded for delaying the committee vote even further due to “highly credible information from multiple sources.”
“It is unacceptable for a nominee with no current role in government, much less at the FBI, to personally direct unjustified and potentially illegal adverse employment actions against senior career FBI leadership and other dedicated, nonpartisan law enforcement officers,” Durbin wrote. “If these allegations are true, Mr. Patel may have perjured himself before the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
Patel has continuously faced criticism from other Democrats as well throughout the hearings. They have cited his statement’s denying involvement with the production of a song “Justice for All” sung by January 6th protestors that were held in federal prison, which Trump played at his campaign rallies.
However, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had continuously backed Patel throughout the hearings for going through “rigorous vetting” and being committed to rooting out “political bias” at the FBI.
“Mr. Patel was instrumental in exposing Crossfire Hurricane. He showed that the Democratic National Committee funded false allegations against President Trump, that the DOJ and FBI hid information from the FISA court to wiretap a presidential campaign and that an FBI lawyer lied in the process,” Grassley said.
“As reward for his efforts to uncover the truth, he was attacked by the media, and the DOJ secretly subpoenaed his records. I know a thing or two about this kind of retaliation. My staff received similar treatment during our investigation.”
Grassley defended Patel in his opening remarks: “Before we even had a hearing, committee members called Mr. Patel ‘dishonest, untrustworthy, lacking in character, a wolf at the door, a conspiracy theorist, a staunch political loyalist and a nightmare.”
“The purpose of this is quite obvious — throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks,” he added. “And they are directed at a nominee who served his country during both Democratic and Republican administrations.”
After winning the election, Trump tapped Patel to lead the FBI to “end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border. Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI.”
Additionally, Patel said he would “cut in half” categories of crimes, which includes the “100,000 rapes in this country next year, make sure we don’t have 100,000 drug overdoses from Chinese fentanyl and Mexican heroin, and make sure we don’t have 17,000 homicides.”
He also told senators at the time he would not use the agency’s resources to go after Democrats, and stated that “98% of the FBI is courageous, apolitical warriors of justice.”
“They just need better leadership.”
If confirmed, Patel would serve a 10-year term.
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