The reassurances were aimed at blunting a persistent line of attack from Democrats, who throughout the hearing confronted Patel with a vast catalog of prior incendiary statements on topics that they said made him unfit for the director's job and raised alarming questions about his belief in conspiracy theories and loyalty to the president. Patel, for his part, sought to distance himself from his own words, accusing Democrats of taking them out of context, highlighting only snippets or misunderstanding his point.
The focus by Democrats on Patel's rhetoric, at a time when the FBI is facing urgent national security concerns including Chinese espionage and a heightened terrorism threat, underscored the extent of their fears that his own words could foreshadow destabilizing upheaval inside the nation's premier federal law enforcement agency.
“There is an unfathomable difference between a seeming facade being constructed around this nominee here today, and what he has actually done and said in real life when left to his own devices,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat. His colleague, Sen. Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, later added: “It is his own words. It is not some conspiracy. It is what Mr. Patel actually said himself.”
Republicans control the Senate, and GOP members made clear their broad support for Patel and determination to get him confirmed over a Democratic minority that appeared united in its opposition but face a mathematically uphill battle to block it.
“We want to be the Senate that confirms an FBI director that rights the ship, shows consistent respect for the rule of law and the Constitution, consistent respect for all law enforcement officers, and I absolutely believe you're up to the task," said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
A steadfast Trump ally, Patel was picked in November to replace Christopher Wray, who served for more than seven years but was forced out of the job Trump had appointed him to after being seen as insufficiently loyal to him. Patel has worked as both a federal prosecutor and defense lawyer and ascended within Trump's orbit when, as a Republican staffer on the House intelligence committee, he worked to bring to light flaws in the FBI's investigation into ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.
Patel has said his experience as a public defender, as well as surveillance errors in the Trump-Russia investigation, have made him unusually attuned to law enforcement overreach.
But he's also alarmed critics with rhetoric — in dozens of podcasts and a 2023 book he authored — in which he has demonstrated fealty to Trump and assailed the decision-making of the agency he’s now been asked to lead. He complained that Democrats were twisting his words to smear him and putting his comments and social media posts in a “grotesque context.”
He was reminded, for instance, that he had previously called for a purge of anti-Trump “conspirators” in the federal government and news media, though he insisted Thursday that the FBI under his leadership would not launch any investigation without a legitimate purpose or basis. And though he's advocated for closing down the FBI headquarters in Washington, and transforming the building into a so-called museum of the “deep state,” he testified that what he really meant was that he wanted the bureau's Washington operation slimmed down so that agents were sent out into the “interior of the country.”
He said the suggestion that he had an “enemies list” — his book identified by name a lengthy list of former government officials he says are part of the so-called deep state — was a “total mischaracterization.”
“The only thing that will matter if I’m confirmed as a director of the FBI is a de-weaponized, de-politicized system of law enforcement completely devoted to rigorous obedience to the Constitution and a singular standard of justice,” Patel said.
Patel found himself repeatedly besieged by Democrats over his view of the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters at the U.S. Capitol. Democrats highlighted a social post about Jan. 6 that referred to “cowards in uniform exposed" to accuse him of disparaging police who were defending the Capitol from the violent mob. But Patel insisted he was referring to military leaders he claims failed to mobilize the National Guard to protect the building.
Patel sought to distance himself from a song he promoted featuring Trump and a choir of jailed Jan. 6 defendants to help raise money for the families of those charged in the Capitol riot. He repeatedly insisted he was unaware that some of the defendants featured in the song were accused of attacks on law enforcement.
“I did not know about the violent offenders. And I did not participate in any of the violence in and around Jan. 6,” Patel said.
In one confrontational moment, Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff urged Patel to turn around and face Capitol police officers in the committee room.
“If you have the courage to look them in the eye, Mr. Patel, and tell them you’re proud of what you did. Tell them you’re proud that you raised money off of people that assaulted their colleagues, that pepper sprayed them, that beat them with poles,” Schiff said.
Patel fired back: “That’s an abject lie, you know it. I never, never, ever accepted violence against law enforcement.”
Patel sought on multiple occasions to reassure Democrats that his FBI would be independent from the White House. He would not acknowledge that Trump had lost the 2020 election, conceding only that Joe Biden was sworn in as president. But he did not endorse Trump's sweeping pardon of supporters, including violent rioters, charged in connection with Jan. 6.
“I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement,” Patel said in response to a question from Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the committee.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the committee, sought to blunt attacks on Patel preemptively by focusing on the need to reform an FBI that he said had become weaponized.
The FBI in recent years has become entangled in numerous politically explosive investigations, including not just the two federal inquiries into Trump that resulted in indictments but also probes of Biden and his son, Hunter.
“It’s no surprise that public trust has declined in an institution that has been plagued by abuse, a lack of transparency, and the weaponization of law enforcement," Grassley said.
He later added, “Mr. Patel, should you be confirmed, you will take charge of an FBI that is in crisis.”
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