President Donald Trump’s FBI director nominee, Kash Patel, said Thursday during his confirmation hearing he did not support the president’s decision to grant clemency to the dozens of Jan. 6 defendants who attacked police officers.
Patel, a 44-year-old lawyer and longtime Trump defender, was grilled by Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dick Durbin (D-IL) about the president’s more than 1,200 pardons and commutations for the violent and nonviolent defendants.
“As we discussed in our private meeting, senator, I have always rejected any violence against law enforcement. … I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement,” Patel said.
Patel also insisted he did not know anyone from the “J6 Prison Choir,” a group Trump promoted at rallies, and that Patel elevated to raise money for defendants in prison.
Patel made an uncharacteristic effort throughout the hearing to distance himself from Trump as he worked to tamp down worries about his loyalty to the president.
When Durbin pressed Patel on his recent interactions with extremists, including a photo he took with Laura Loomer while promoting her book and eight podcast appearances with Stew Peters, Patel said he did not believe he was “guilty by association.”
“My association, as you loosely define it, is by appearing in media over a thousand times to take on people who are putting on conspiratorial theories and to disavow them of their false impressions and to talk to them about the truth,” Patel said. “That is something that I will always continue to fight for, senator.”
Patel, a former senior national security and Department of Defense official, became a reliable ally to Trump after he led House Republicans’ inquiry into the FBI’s investigation of alleged Trump-Russia collusion, helping to bring to light some flaws in the FBI’s investigation that were later partially corroborated by two special counsels.
Patel’s vocal criticisms of what he describes as the “deep state,” his persistent self-promotion, and his relatively limited background experience compared to past directors have made him a controversial choice. He has also drawn skepticism over two books he wrote, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy and a children’s book about “the king,” a reference to Trump. But Republican senators have remained supportive of Patel, including centrists such as Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Thom Tillis (R-NC).
Patel opened the hearing by assuring senators he would adhere to the FBI’s mission and prioritize two items, tackling violent crime and offering “full transparency” in the face of congressional oversight.
“If confirmed as the next FBI director, I will remain focused on the FBI’s core mission, that is to investigate fully wherever there is a constitutional factual basis to do so and to never make a prosecutorial decision that is solely the providence of the Department of Justice and the attorney general,” Patel said.
Patel found a welcome audience in Republicans at the hearing. Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), 91, who was elected senator in the post-Watergate era, has for decades advocated government whistleblowers and scrutinized the intelligence community. Grassley opened the hearing by saying, “Only 41% of the American public thinks the FBI is doing a good job” because of past bureau officials’ abuses of authority.
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“Mr. Patel, in my time, I’ve never seen our law enforcement and intelligence community institutions so badly infected with political decision-making,” Grassley said, adding the bureau is “in crisis.”
Grassley warned Patel: “Either you run the agency, or the agency runs you, and the agency certainly ended up running former Director [Christopher] Wray.”
