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Kash Patel, President Trump’s candidate to lead the FBI, was at the center of a controversial confirmation audience on Thursday, in the face of intense grilled Democrats on the Senate Judicial Committee on his comments and loyalty to Trump.
For Republicans, Patel is an opportunity to reform an agency whose public image has been successful and focuses the FBI on its mission to combat crime.
For Democrats, Patel is an unskilled figure at risk of abusing the FBI power.
“But Mr. Patel should believe that all of these public officials, all Republicans, all from Trump’s first administration, and apparently made his list of enemies,” said Senator Dick Durbin (Ill), The maximum democrat of the group.
“Our nation needs a FBI director who understands the severity of this mission and is ready on the first day, not someone who is consumed by his own personal political grievances.”
A combination of commitments on how FBI power will be made
The Democrats put Patel with a series of questions about how Trump would manage the exterior pressure.
It was a line of questions that he made frequent references to which he listed as “government gangsters” in an appendix of a book he wrote with the same name.
While President Chuck Grassley (R-IAWA) defended the list as a transparency effort that should not be interpreted badly as a “list of enemies”, Patel has used background collection emails past to say that The group must be responsible.
Patel intended to secure the Committee that he would not take illegal actions, but did not commit to resign if he had this pressure.
“My answer is simply, I would never do anything unconstitutional or illegal, and I never have it in my 16 years of government service,” he said.
“I will always obey the law.”
He also dodged questions about whether he would follow the past comments calling for a FBI former director Christopher Wray.
“I have no interest, no desire and, if confirmed, I will not return. There will be no politicization in the FBI. There will be no remuneration actions of any FBI if I confirm as director of the FBI,” he said.
Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) Argued that Patel had provided Democrats the guarantees they were looking for.
“I have been listening diligently over the last hours and what I have heard of is that, that your duty is to protect North -Americans, who will work to defend the Constitution,” he said.
“You said that you will not allow there to be victims of Government overload, because it has happened to you. You have talked about not having intention to go back. … you have said that everything you do will be factor and constitutionally based.”
Patel Mar-a-Lago Sparks scrutini
But several democratic legislators said that the strong point of whether Patel could resist Trump’s pressure and truly operate in a transcript of the Grand Jury when the candidate was called to testify in the investigation of classified documents by special counselor Jack Smith.
Patel said previously that he saw Trump declassify documents. Although the claim was not specific to Mar-Aago’s documents in the center of the probe, Trump’s lawyers pointed to the comment and may have been in a defense.
Patel was quoted to provide testimonies in the investigation of a special lawyer on Trump, and was granted immunity after begging his fifth amendment against self -uncrimination to many of the questions.
The Democrats have sought the transcript and said on Thursday that Patel can speak freely about their own testimony, which Patel argued that he would violate the great jury’s secret.
Senator Cory Booker (DN.J.) said Patel set aside the transparency he claims to provide as director of the FBI.
“It would be irresponsible to move forward if we do not know that the FBI’s future would violate the law and lie to the President of the United States,” said Booker.
Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) Said that even the fifth, Patel, asked questions about his reliability and commitment to follow the law.
“I do not know, but it may be the first candidate for the director of the FBI in history, who considered it necessary to beg the fifth, say that he would not testify to a great jury because he could incriminate it,” Schiff said.
Clashes over Patel’s past statements
The audience served as a format to issue some of Patel’s most controversial statements after a robust series of appearances in right -wing podcasts over the last four years.
These interviews were a rich well for democratic legislators, such as Patel was dodged and continuously hardenedwhile responding to his past observations.
Patel did not respond to the past comments that “would close the FBI Hoover building on the first day and reopen it the next day as a Museum of Deep State”.
When he faced a long date on how he would “later” the criminal or civilian journalists “who” helped Joe Biden Rig Rig Rig presidential elections, “Patel complained that only a partial date was shown.
But perhaps his most confused exchange came to questions about the public role he has played in promoting a song recorded by January 6 accused in prison
“I am not aware of this, sir, it had nothing to do with recording,” he said.
In later issues Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CONN.) He said that Patel had presumed of his participation.
“In fact, as you said, Steve Bannon In his program: “Then we entered a studio and recorded it, dominated it, digitized it and put it as a song, now the spear exclusively in the war room.” This was the song of the J6 prison heart, “said Blumenthal.
“We, we, us,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) He later added that Patel apparently included in the group’s work.
Patel later said he used the “proverbial us” when Schiff asked if Patel lied to Steve Bannon.
Patel also promoted the group’s song and acknowledged that he knew the group’s background.
“The J6 prisons choir is made up of people who have been imprisoned as a result of their participation in the protest of January 6, 2021 for electoral integrity. They have sung the anthem every night since they were imprisoned, allowing to help, ”he wrote Social networks in a 2023 post.
Clear division on Patel and FBI reform
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) praised Patel as a figure that could restore the FBI reputation.
“When I go home in Texas, the jeans ask me regularly, we should abolish the FBI? Now my response to this is an angry no. The FBI has a critical mission to stop the bad Human or annoying or terrorist traffants.
Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) However, he seemed exasperated by his selection.
“He has chosen someone who, in my opinion, is his desire to say yes when everyone else would say no … That’s why he is sitting here,” he said.
“Look at the people who kept this job in front of Mr. Patel, the height of the people who had this job, the qualifications of the people who worked and how any of us might think that their background, their qualifications, contain. A candle to the people who went in front of you?
But Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO.) Dispelled the worries of Democrats.
“I don’t think they can believe you are sitting where you are sitting right now. But guess what? You are, and you will confirm and re -direct this agency to which it should always be, that is to protect the north -American people, to fight the Crime, put the bad in prison, not to execute a political agenda as some form of justice of the Banana Republic, “he said.
