#KashPatel faces #Senate #confirmation hearing for #FBI director
Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, faces what could be a contentious confirmation hearing before the Senate #Judiciary Cmte, w/questions expected over his inexperience, brash rhetoric & concerns he would deploy the bureau to target the president’s foes.
#law #USpol
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/30/kash-patel-senate-confirmation-hearing-fbi-director/
#KashPatel’s nomination has alarmed #Democrats who say he lacks both the background & gravitas to lead the nation’s premier #law enforcement agency. Of particular concern, they note, is his “#EnemiesList” of so-called “deep-state” actors Patel included in his 2023 book.
The chairman of the #Senate #Judiciary Cmte, #ChuckGrassley of Iowa, began #KashPatel’s hearing by defending Patel from critics who have called him unqualified. Grassley also accused fmr #FBI director #ChrisWray of mismanaging the agency. The FBI is “in crisis,” & “infected by political decision-making,” the #Republican lawmaker said in his opening remarks.
#sycophant #MAGA #NationalSecurity #intelligence #ConspiracyTheories #law #USpol
Hoping to create an alternative headline, Grassley introduced previously undisclosed internal #FBI emails about the initiation of the origins of the #Trump investigation.
Quoting FBI internal emails, he reveals that the bureau’s initial investigation into Trump’s use of #FakeElectors to overturn the 2020 election—an inquiry eventually taken over by the special counsel Jack Smith— was code-named “Arctic Frost.”
#KashPatel #MAGA #NationalSecurity #intelligence #ConspiracyTheories #law #USpol
Grassley was implying that just opening a #criminal investigation into #Trump — into his efforts to overturn his loss of the 2020 election — was self-evidently a corrupt & politicized scheme. The #FBI has “yet to learn a lesson,” Grassley tells #KashPatel. “I hope you will learn that lesson for them, or teach them that lesson.”
#sycophant #MAGA #NationalSecurity #intelligence #ConspiracyTheories #law #USpol
Richard Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the #Senate #Judiciary Cmte, told #KashPatel he “does not meet the standard” to lead the #FBI.
Durbin said Patel lacks the temperament to wield the power of an FBI director: “This is someone who’s left behind a trail of grievances throughout his life, lashing out at anyone who disrespects him or doesn’t agree with him.”
#sycophant #MAGA #NationalSecurity #intelligence #ConspiracyTheories #law #USpol
Durbin’s remarks highlight a theme of #KashPatel’s resume. Nearly everywhere he has worked, from the #DOJ to the #Defense Dept to the #Trump #WhiteHouse, Patel has complained that he was beset by people making bad decisions for improper, baldly political motives. Patel’s book brands them “government gangsters” who are part of the “deep state.” Durbin says that is conspiratorial thinking.
#sycophant #MAGA #NationalSecurity #intelligence #ConspiracyTheories #law #USpol
#KashPatel tried to defend himself on the issue of #Jan6 by saying he has always condemned violence against law enforcement, but he sidestepped entirely his involvement in producing the jailhouse recording of the so-called “Jan 6 choir” singing the national anthem. Several members of that “choir” were in custody specifically for violently assaulting police officers on Jan 6.
#sycophant #MAGA #NationalSecurity #FBI #intelligence #ConspiracyTheories #law #USpol
#KashPatel also tried to distance himself from #QAnon, a group that has embraced #ConspiracyTheories. Asked if he is a supporter or follower of QAnon, Patel says no, & that he “rejected outright QAnon baseless conspiracy theories.”
Previously, Patel had said he saw some value in the community. “I disagree with a lot of what that movement says, but I agree with a lot of what that movement says,” he said in a 2022 interview.
#sycophant #MAGA #NationalSecurity #FBI #intelligence #law #USpol
Re #Trump’s mass #pardons of #Jan6 insurgents, #KashPatel said he does “not agree w/the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement.”
It’s a very lawyerly answer. The 14 people who received sentence #commutations, not pardons, were accused of #SeditiousConspiracy — a crime that requires the defendants used #violent force against the govt. But those who got commutations were not involved in the most violent assaults against on J6.
In his book “Government Gansters,” #KashPatel made clear his hostility toward the so-called deep state, publishing a list of 60 names in an appendix.
It has been widely interpreted as an #EnemiesList & singles out fmr executive branch ofcls but is by no means “comprehensive,” acc/to Patel.
At his confirmation hearing to be #FBI director today, Patel rejected the idea that the group of names was an enemies list.
He just lied, lied & then lied some more.
@Nonilex
Which is worse, trump nominees repeatedly lying in their confirmation hearings or their NEVER being held to account?
I’m old enough to remember when lying to congress was a federal offense.
Nonilex
Joe Hill 🇵🇸🇺🇦