WASHINGTON ― FBI Director Kash Patel faced intense scrutiny at a fiery Senate hearing that devolved into shouting matches on Tuesday over his handling of the investigation into conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination, his purge of top agency officials perceived as disloyal to President Donald Trump, and his refusal to release more information about the death of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Democrats hammered Patel for posts he made the day of Kirk’s shooting last week that prematurely and erroneously announced that the FBI had caught the suspect in Kirk’s shooting, even though it was the wrong person.
“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,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday.
“I’m seeing FBI leadership more focused on social media clout and on political revenge than on fighting crime,” added Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.).
Patel defended his work on the investigation, however, saying the manhunt for the suspect was aided by the FBI’s release of videos of the suspect. The father of the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, said he recognized his son in the footage and then turned him in to the authorities.
“Could I have worded it a little better in the heat of the moment? Sure,” Patel said of his bungled social media posts in a Fox News “Fox & Friends” interview on Monday. “But do I regret putting it out? Absolutely not.”
Although Patel’s handling of the investigation drew bipartisan criticism, including reportedly within the Trump White House and the FBI, Republican senators on the committee largely defended him by saying that he simply made a mistake.
“So he announced two things that turned out to be a mistake. Everybody makes a mistake,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told reporters on Monday.
But Patel disagreed with that characterization during his questioning before the hearing.
“I don’t see it as a mistake,” Patel told senators while recognizing he could have phrased his social media posts better.
Patel was also pressed by Durbin about reports that he had required officials at the FBI to undergo polygraph tests for “loyalty” to himself and to Trump, and his firing of FBI agents who have criticized his leadership. Patel repeatedly declined to answer.
“I reject any reports that have false information in them,” he told the senator.
Later in the hearing, Patel got into a heated shouting match with several Democrats, including Cory Booker of New Jersey, after Booker told him he believed he wouldn’t last long in his post as Trump’s FBI director.
“You are an embarrassment to the division of this country!” Patel yelled at Booker, telling him, “Your time is over.”
“You don’t tell me my time is over! The people of New Jersey tell me when my time is — you can’t lecture me!” Booker shouted back.
When Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asked Patel why Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender and associate of Epstein, was transferred to a lower security prison shortly after meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche ― a question that the Trump administration has yet to answer ― Patel lashed out in part by calling Schiff a “fraud” and a “buffoon.”
“You are the biggest fraud to sit in the … Senate, you are a disgrace to this institution … you are a political buffoon at best,” Patel told the senator.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.