Kash Patel, the controversial nominee to lead the FBI, cleared another key procedural hurdle Tuesday.
The Senate voted 48-45 to move forward with Patel’s nomination, setting up his confirmation vote in the coming days to helm the agency for a 10-year term.
Patel, if confirmed, is set to be a central figure in President Donald Trump’s efforts to leverage his powers against perceived enemies. A former House staffer who worked to discredit the congressional inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Patel has promised to go after Trump’s adversaries and shut down the FBI’s Washington headquarters on Day 1 of his tenure to create “a museum” of the “deep state.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats have argued that Patel would put fealty to the president ahead of his duties as FBI director and accused the nominee of helping from outside the federal government to orchestrate the agency’s recent leadership shakeup. They asked for a second hearingto question Patel on that matter and others — a request swiftly denied by Chair Chuck Grassley, who argued the request amounted to an attempt to undermine the 2024 election results giving Trump the prerogative to staff his own administration.
In his first, and only, confirmation hearing, Patel distanced himself from his work with the “J6 prison choir,” formed by a group of people incarcerated for participating in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. He failed to provide a definitive answer on whether Trump lost the 2020 election and declined to provide details on his testimony as part of the investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents.
Trump announced Patel’s nomination in December, moving to oust then-FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom Trump selected in his first administration before souring on him. In departing his post last month, Wray — who Trump accused of weaponizing the agency — said in a parting message to colleagues they should remain independent and stay away from politics.
