Kash Patel, Trump's pick to lead FBI, passes crucial step toward Senate confirmation
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12 to 10, along party lines, Thursday to proceed with confirmation for Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI Director.
The nomination next goes to the Senate for a vote. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber.
Patel, a Trump supporter who held several roles in the final two years of Trump’s first term, sat through a contentious hearing on Jan. 30 but faced no significant opposition.
Democrats tried to raise alarms over Patel's nomination, pointing to a list in his 2023 book of 60 "deep state" officials lawmakers argue Patel would retaliate against in the position of FBI director. More recently, the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, claimed Patel "may have committed perjury" by testifying at his hearing that he knew nothing about a purge of top agency officials.
“I hope that what I reveal today from credible whistleblowers at the highest levels will give my Republican colleagues some pause before it’s too late,” Durbin said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chair of the committee, Thursday called these and other attacks "outrageous."
"The purpose of this campaign is quite obvious: throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks," Grassley said. "I'm not falling for it."
Who is Kash Patel?
A former public defender, Department of Justice attorney and Hill staffer, Patel worked in the previous Trump administration as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism.
He served as principal deputy to the acting director of national intelligence for six months and as chief of staff to the secretary of Defense for the final two and a half months of Trump's first term.
Since Trump's 2020 loss, Patel has become a conservative media personality, posting on social media, giving dozens of interviews and making public appearances to support Trump and his agenda.
Dems wanted another go at him
After about five hours of grilling from the Senate Judiciary Committee late last month, Democrats had called for Patel to appear before them again for a sequel hearing, before putting his nomination up for a vote.
Grassley unequivocally rejected that request, saying in a statement, "Further hearings on his nomination are unnecessary."
Democrats were able to delay the committee vote an additional week, one of the few protest tactics available to them as the minority party, but ultimately failed to get another opportunity to question Patel.
Ranking member Durbin said during a meeting last week he was "disappointed – not surprised, but disappointed," by Grassley's decision.
Durbin had argued then that Patel's nomination deserved "extra consideration and review" given the decade-long tenure for FBI directors, beyond most Cabinet members' time in office, as well as what he described as Patel's disqualifications for the role.
"He does not have the temperament for the job," Durbin said in a committee meeting last week.
"For God’s sake," he continued, "to give the most sweeping investigative agency in the United States and the world over to this man to settle political scores is something we’re going to regret."