FBI Director nominee Kash Patel was involved in a tense exchange with Dem. Sen. Dick Durbin over President Trump's pardon of January 6 rioters earlier this year.
President Donald Trump’s FBI director nominee, Kash Patel, said Thursday during his confirmation hearing he did not support the president’s decision to grant clemency to the dozens of Jan. 6 defendants who attacked police officers.
A Democrat has requested information from government agencies regarding claims that Kash Patel violated protocol during an attempted hostage rescue mission.
Patel told senators he would commit himself to "due process and transparency" if confirmed as the bureau's director.
Ill., questioned Kash Patel about his support of President Trump's pardon of Jan. 6 rioters convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers, including those who have since committed other crimes. Patel would not say if he believed the pardons made America safer.
President Donald Trump’s new administration is looking ahead to key Senate hearings this week for three of his most controversial nominees.
Durbin wrote, “I have recently received highly credible information revealing that while serving in the first Trump Administration’s National Security Council, Kash Patel broke protocol regarding hostage rescues by publicly commenting without authorization on the then in-progress retrieval of two Americans held captive by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen in October 2020.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he plans to oppose the nomination of Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI. “Kash Patel has
President Donald Trump ’s nominee to be the next FBI director, Kash Patel, claimed during his confirmation hearing on Thursday that he had never heard of a right-wing conspiracy theorist – before being reminded that he's appeared on his show eight times.
Later, speaking from the Senate floor, Durbin expressed “grave concerns” about Patel’s fitness to lead the F.B.I., calling him a “staunch political loyalist who has repeatedly peddled false conspiracy theories and threatened to retaliate against those who have slighted him personally and politically.
Trump's FBI nominee spared with lawmakers for hours on Thursday, and was caught in several less than honest statements