FEB 27, 2025 | NEWS | By Rachel Weissman (Opinion Editor)
The Senate confirmed Kash Patel, an outspoken ally to President Donald Trump, to serve as the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Director on Feb. 20.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Patel’s nomination on Feb. 13, disregarding past Democratic concerns that he would operate as a loyalist for the president and target political opponents.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin explained his outrage in a speech to his peers on the Senate floor before the vote on Patel’s nomination.
“I oppose Mr. Patel because he is dangerously, politically extreme. He has repeatedly expressed his intention to use our nation’s most important law enforcement agency to retaliate against his political enemies,” Sen. Durbin said. “Mr. Patel claims he respects law enforcement, but his words and actions demonstrate his disdain for the FBI. He has said that on day one, he plans to ‘shut down’ the FBI headquarters. And he has falsely claimed that the FBI ‘was planning January 6 for a year,’ beforehand. There is no truth to that statement.”
The committee voted 12-10 to send the nomination to the Republican-controlled Senate, and Patel saw success in his confirmation.
Former FBI director Christopher Wray was appointed by Trump in 2017. FBI Directors are typically appointed for 10-year terms but can be replaced by the president, which Trump announced he would do in November 2024. A month later, Wray announced his resignation, coinciding with the end of the Biden administration.
“Under the leadership of Christopher Wray, the FBI illegally raided my home, without cause, worked diligently on illegally impeaching and indicted me, and has done everything else to interfere with the success and future of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They have used their vast powers to threaten and destroy many innocent Americans, some of which will never be able to recover from what has been done to them.”
Patel is inheriting the role at a difficult time in the bureau. The Trump administration asked eight senior officials to resign or face termination. Trump’s agenda against the FBI began with Patel in 2016, when he was just a Republican congressional aide and Trump national security staffer. Patel fought alongside Trump and his first administration to undermine the FBI’s investigation into connections between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.
Patel’s nomination derives from his multiple accusations against the FBI and intelligence agencies. Patel has called out the organizations specifically for supporting the “deep state,” a conspiracy belief that the government operates with underground secret power operations. He also criticized the agencies’ investigations into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as they are targeting Trump and his allies, including Patel himself.
Patel has questioned the security integrity of the bureau, and claims it should focus on law enforcement. “Go be cops,” he said in a podcast last September. Patel’s disapproval of intelligence agencies makes his political career stand out among his predecessors, yet remains consistent with the 2024 Trump campaign.
Along with his criticism, Patel claimed he wanted to “Shut down the FBI Hoover Building on Day 1 and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state.”
However, during his confirmation hearing on Jan. 30, his comments were not consistent. “If confirmed as the next FBI Director, I will remain focused on the FBI’s core mission. That is to investigate fully wherever there is a constitutional factual basis to do so.”
Trump’s controversial appointments do not end with Patel. On Feb. 23, he announced that Dan Bongino, a conservative podcaster and commentator, will become the next deputy director of the FBI. Trump posted on Truth Social that Bongino is “A man of incredible love and passion for our country” and will serve under Patel. Bongino, a previous NYPD officer and Secret Service agent, is an unrelenting Trump ally who has spread false claims about Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.
Bongino’s appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, means neither of the top two agents at the FBI have previous experience with the bureau.