Kash Patel Faces Fiery Senate Hearing As Democrats Accuse FBI Director Of Targeting Journalists

Highlights:

SENATE Democrats accused FBI director Kash Patel at a fiery congressional hearing on Tuesday (15) of abusing his position as head of the law enforcement agency to intimidate journalists.

Patel angrily rejected the allegations during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and lauded the FBI’s record in reducing violent crime, fighting drug trafficking and prosecuting fraud.

Several Democratic senators and Patel traded sharply personal attacks during the combative four-and-a-half-hour hearing.

“Like a thug, you’re using your agency to go after reporters,” said Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey. “Reporters wrote about the president and your bureau went to their homes and subpoenaed their mothers.

“A reporter wrote about you and your bureau ran her name through records and began an investigation,” Booker added.

The FBI director said it was a “total lie” that he had used FBI resources to target reporters. Patel filed a $250 million suit in April against the Atlantic magazine and the author of an article he called a “defamatory hit piece”.

The Atlantic story accused Patel of frequently drinking to excess and said he was in danger of losing his job as FBI director. According to cable news channel MS Now, the FBI launched a so-called “insider threat investigation” into the Atlantic story.

According to the cable news channel MS Now, the FBI launched a so-called “insider threat investigation” into the Atlantic story.

Since taking over as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Patel has been accused of carrying out a purge of agents perceived as being disloyal to president Donald Trump.

Among those dismissed were scores of agents who worked on criminal cases brought against Trump after he left the White House in 2021.

Asked by senators about the wave of departures on Tuesday, Patel said “there was no purging” and the vast majority of agents who left had retired voluntarily.

Republicans asked Patel about the FBI’s probes into a prior federal investigation of Trump’s attempts to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, an issue Republican committee chair Senator Chuck Grassley has called a top priority for the panel.

Tuesday’s appearance came after prosecutor Joe DiGenova, who had been leading a Justice Department investigation that sought to show Trump was the victim of a criminal conspiracy, abruptly resigned last week.

Patel appeared to confirm media reports that a dozen FBI Iran experts were fired this year because of their alleged “weaponization” efforts, namely that they were part of the investigation into Trump’s alleged retention of classified documents.

“I think what’s most important is to not have a weaponized FBI,” Patel said. “I will endeavor every single day to make sure we have no one there that is doing that.”

He has also faced scrutiny over his use of a government plane and luxury cars.

Patel said in a letter released ahead of the hearing that he had reimbursed personal travel expenses and that the luxury cars were cheaper than others the FBI had previously bought.

The hearing also featured a series of bizarre exchanges over the FBI’s decision to lift restrictions on hiring applicants who have engaged in prostitution or bestiality. “The FBI has lowered its hiring standards by dropping automatic disqualification for applicants who have stolen from prior employers, paid for sex, or engaged in bestiality,” said Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois.

Patel said this referred to applicants who were victims, not perpetrators.

“Applicants who have engaged in bestiality means they were victims of bestiality because they were forced to do so,” he said. “We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked.”

The FBI director also raised concerns among Democrats by declining to rule out sending agents to polling places during the November midterm elections.

“Election integrity is of paramount importance,” he said. “This FBI is not going to shy away from that effort.”