FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday ran into several shouting matches with Democratic senators who pressed him on the bungling of the Epstein files, firings of agents for alleged political reasons and warnings that President Donald Trump, eventually, would turn on the director despite his fealty.
Patel, who has come under heavy criticism for his social media posts in the early days of the investigation into Charlie Kirk’s murder, held his poise for most of the oversight hearing before the GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, repeating tried-and-true methods set out by directors before him to avoid specific answers and denying accusations that he’s politicized the agency.
In one outburst, however, Patel called Sen. Adam Schiff “a disgrace to this institution” and a “political buffoon at best” after being pressed on who made the decision to move Jeffrey Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, to a minimum-security prison after she sat for a multi-day interview with a top Justice Department official.
“You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate,” Patel said as Schiff, a Democrat from California, attempted to speak over Patel.
Republicans rallied around Patel during Tuesday’s hearing, praising law enforcement for the capture of Kirk’s alleged killer and citing other successes from the agency.
“I’ve actually admired the way you’ve tried to keep your composure over the course of this,” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said before offering some advice.
“The last one I’d just coach you on,” Tillis said of the shouting match with Schiff. “Don’t take the bait … just sit down in the quiet confidence that you’re doing a good job.”
Blame game on the Epstein files
FBI Director Kash Patel appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his first oversight hearing, Tuesday, September 16, at the Capitol in Washington. – Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
As Democrats tore into Patel over a laundry list of issues, the director wasted no time trying to shirk responsibility on one major matter – the Epstein affair – in an effort to keep the administration’s hands clean in an area that’s caused consternation for both parties.
He blamed Alex Acosta, who previously oversaw a non-prosecution agreement Epstein as a US attorney in Florida during the George W. Bush administration, for committing the “original sin in the Epstein case.”
In the deal, Epstein avoided federal charges by agreeing to serve 13 months in prison on Florida state prostitution charges and to register as a sex offender.
“If I were the FBI director then, it wouldn’t have happened,” Patel said.
Patel maintained that the structure of the deal is, in large part, the reason the Trump administration did not release troves of evidence in the case despite its promise to do so.
The agreement meant the court mandates protective orders “legally prohibiting anyone from ever seeing that material ever again without the permission of the court.”
A Justice Department review later found that Acosta exercised “poor judgment” in striking the deal. He went on to serve as Trump’s Labor secretary in his first term.
Controversial handling of Kirk shooting
Much of the hourslong hearing centered around the assassination last week of Kirk, including how the administration was dealing with a rise of political violence in the US.
At times, Patel was forced to confront harsh criticism from Democrats who refused to give him a pass over how he handled the early stages of the investigation into the killing. The director said on social media hours after the incident that a “subject” for the shooting was in custody. But he soon had to walk that back after that individual was released.
“What we had at the time was a subject in custody in relation to this investigation,” Patel told Sen. Peter Welch when asked about the posts. “I put that information out, and then when we interviewed him, I put out the results of that.”
Patel admitted he could have “been more careful in my verbiage” but maintained he was being transparent with the public and giving timely updates.
But when the Vermont Democrat said the posts were a “mistake,” Patel quickly said he didn’t “see it as a mistake.”
Earlier in the hearing, the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin, was even more forceful in his assessment of Patel’s actions following the assassination, arguing that the director had “sparked mass confusion” with the posts.
“Mr. Patel was so anxious to take credit for finding Mr. Kirk’s assassin that he violated one of the basics of effective law enforcement: At critical stages of an investigation, shut up and let the professionals do their job,” Durbin said.
Patel’s handling of firings at FBI
Patel faced repeated questions over his firing of FBI agents – some of whom held top positions in the bureau before being summarily let go in early August and have since sued.
Democratic senators attempted to drill down on accusations that the firings were based in part on political pressure from the White House to fire agents involved in Trump-related investigations.
Patel denied again and again that he ever fired an agent at the behest of the White House and insisted that no firing was due to case assignment or whom the agent voted for in the last presidential election.
Sen. Adam Schiff speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Tuesday. – Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
“So you’re testifying today that you played no role in the firing of even a single FBI agent for political retribution?” Schiff asked Patel directly.
“None for political retribution,” Patel said, adding later that “everybody is allowed to make their allegations.”
The lawsuit filed by three former agents alleges, in part, that Patel told former acting director Brian Driscoll in an early August conversation that his bosses, “had directed him to fire anyone who they identified as having worked on a criminal investigation against President Donald J. Trump.”
“Any termination at the FBI was a decision that I made based on the evidence that I have as a director of the FBI, and it’s my job, and I’m not going to shy away from it,” Patel said.
‘I think you’re not going to be around long’
U.S. Senator Cory Booker questions FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday. – Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Patel faced down several prominent Democrats with little fanfare, dodging some questions and flatly denying the premise of others.
But the first significant break in the relatively calm hearing came after New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker told Patel that eventually, Trump “will cut you loose.”
“Mr. Patel, I think you’re not going to be around long,” Booker warned Patel. “I think this might be your last oversight hearing.”
Booker told Patel that “as much as you supplicate yourself to the will of Donald Trump and not the Constitution of the United States of America,” Trump has shown “he is not loyal to people like you.”
Booker criticized Patel for shifting agents to focus on immigration and allegedly firing agents for political reasons.
“I believe you have made our country weaker and less safe,” Booker said.
Patel replied by telling Booker, “that rant of false information does not bring this country together.”
“My God, my God,” Booker said. “You’re going to lecture me on dividing this country?”
The two began shouting over each other, with Patel telling Booker the senator was “an embarrassment” and Booker ridiculing Patel for “making a mockery of this committee.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Patel concluded.
Following the exchange, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz commented that “it used to be that to see theater you had to go to the Kennedy Center.”
“Now, apparently you need only go to the Senate Judiciary Committee and see our Senate Democrats berating the director of the FBI,” Cruz said. “What is remarkable is what Senator Booker was berating director Patel about: He wasn’t berating him for failing to do his job, but rather, he was furious for Director Patel for successfully doing his job.”
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