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3 BIG TAKEAWAYS FROM KASH PATEL’S FBI OVERSIGHT HEARING
By Joshua Barajas, @Josh_Barrage
Senior Editor, Digital
FBI director Kash Patel spent hours Tuesday reassuring senators he is fit to lead the bureau.
Patel touted his achievements before the Senate Judiciary Committee seven months into his job as head of the nation’s lead law enforcement agency.
This was his first oversight hearing since his confirmation in January. And Patel’s appearance provided a bookend for senators to take stock of his performance and examine his actions against his promises.
The hearing also comes on the heels of the apprehension of the suspect in the killing of conservative influencer, Charlie Kirk — an investigation that drew bipartisan criticism of Patel’s performance as FBI director.
Republicans largely supported Patel during the hearing, though both parties urged the director to be more transparent about the Jeffrey Epstein files. Democrats were heavy in their critiques.
“I don’t see it as a mistake. I see it as something — working with the public to identify that there was a subject in custody,” Patel said.
Patel’s would-be update intensified concerns over his tenure as FBI director as online speculation about Kirk’s killer swirled. (Charging documents filed Tuesday provided more information about the suspect investigators eventually arrested.)
There were also reports of Patel dining at a New York restaurant while the manhunt was underway. The New York Times reported that Patel and his deputy held a profanity-laced call in which Patel called out agents he thought didn’t provide him with timely information. And the forced resignation this summer of a decorated counterterrorism agent who ran the Salt Lake City office also got attention as agents raced to find a suspect.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Patel was “so anxious to take credit” that he violated a basic rule of effective law enforcement: “Shut up and let the professionals do their job.”
On Epstein transparency, Patel says an ‘original sin’ undermined the case from the start
Watch the clip in the player above.
When it came to the investigation into convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Patel said there was an “original sin.”
Patel took a swipe at Alex Acosta in his opening remarks, criticizing how the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida approached the early stages of the case close to two decades ago.
“The original case involved a very limited search warrant, or set of search warrants, and didn’t take as much investigatory material it should have seized,” Patel said. “If I were the FBI director then, it wouldn't have happened.”
Patel also cited a 2008 plea deal and non-prosecution agreement Acosta approved that made it harder to access materials related to the case.
Acosta’s actions were part of a Department of Justice 2020 review into allegations that prosecutors “improperly resolved” the federal investigation into Epstein.
The department concluded that Acosta acted in “poor judgment” with the plea deal, though it was done within the scope of his broad discretion. Acosta resigned in 2019 as President Donald Trump’s first Labor secretary over mounting scrutiny into his role in the Epstein prosecution.
Acosta will voluntarily appear before the House Oversight Committee this Friday as the body investigates the handling of the Epstein case.
In Tuesday’s hearing, Patel told multiple senators that the FBI will release everything related to the Epstein investigation that is not sealed by law.
Watch the clip in the player above.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., asked Patel if the disgraced financier trafficked young women to anyone besides himself. Patel, who said he reviewed most of the Epstein files, said there is “no credible information” that Epstein trafficked to other individuals.
The Republican senator strongly encouraged the FBI director to give greater transparency on the Epstein files.
“This issue is not going away,” Kennedy told Patel, echoing a bipartisan call within Congress for the Trump administration to release more documents from the Epstein case. “You’re gonna have to do more to satisfy the American people.”
Patel agreed, though he made a point of saying that prior administrations had the opportunity to release more documents and didn’t do so.
Patel denies political retribution
Watch the clip in the player above.
At the top of the hearing, Patel told Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that “this FBI will not be weaponized anymore in either side of the aisle.”
Democrats on the committee were not convinced, leading to the most tense exchanges throughout the hearing.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., recalled that Patel promised lawmakers in his confirmation hearing that the FBI would not be politicized.
Blumenthal read Patel’s testimony back to him: “Every FBI employee would be held to the absolute same standard and no one would be terminated for case assignments.” (You can see the original exchange here.)
"I'm not going to mince words: You lied to us,” Blumental told Patel.
Undergirding this repeated concern from Democratic lawmakers was the August purge of five veteran FBI officials as Patel seeks to reshape the bureau.
Three of those high-ranking officials fired by Patel are suing the Trump administration, claiming there was a “campaign of retribution” from Patel who had bowed to political pressure from Trump to fire them.
Blumenthal asked if anyone from the White House had contacted Patel about personnel decisions, the FBI director said, “I completely disagree with your entire premise.”
Blumenthal pressed further. Patel said people are terminated at the FBI if they fail to meet the job’s duties, stressing it is a decision he makes, not the White House. Patel added he objected to the senator’s accusation that he’s lying.
Late into the hearing, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., picked up the baton. He asked Patel if he's ever terminated anyone at the FBI “in whole or in part because of a prior case assignment?”
“No one at the FBI is terminated for case assignments alone,” Patel said.
Schiff locked in on Patel’s use of “alone,” reasking his question, but adding if terminations happened because of work related to the Jan. 6 insurrection or other investigations related to Trump.
Patel repeated his answer that no one was terminated at the FBI “for case assignments alone.”
Schiff, who led House investigations into Trump during his first term, is now under a DOJ investigation for alleged mortgage fraud. That case, along withothers, have touched off concerns that the president is targeting a range of perceived political opponents.
Watch the clip in the player above.
A shouting match ensued when Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., told Patel “you’re not going to be around long” as FBI director.
Grassley banged his gavel to try to quiet the room.
One Big Question: How has Trump responded to other instances of political violence? NPR’s Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter discuss.
Perspectives: What’s caused reading scores to drop to the worst point in decades? An education expert weighs in.
THIS WEEK’S TRIVIA QUESTION
By Ali Schmitz
Politics Producer
Kash Patel repeatedly pointed to his predecessors in Tuesday’s hearing. It got us thinking about the FBI’s long history.
Our question: Which president is credited for ordering the creation of an investigative unit that later became the FBI?
Send your answers to [email protected] or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.
Last week, we asked: Who appeared on most pennies for more than 150 years before Abraham Lincoln?
The answer: Lady Liberty. Often seen with flowing hair, the allegorical figure of “liberty” long appeared on the penny before a U.S. president was finally minted on the coins in 1909. There were also “Indian Head” pennies before Lincoln appeared on the coin, a representation of Lady Liberty in a native headdress.
Congratulations to our winners: Brenda Radford and Elizabeth Johnson!
Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.
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