Senate Dems demand DOJ, Pentagon turn over info on FBI nominee Kash Patel

WASHINGTON (CN) — As the Senate gears up to interview Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, a top Democrat is requesting information from federal agencies on what he said were efforts by the former White House official to slow-walk President Joe Biden’s transition into office.

Patel, a former federal prosecutor who served in senior roles in the Justice Department and at the Pentagon during Trump’s first administration, is one of the president-elect’s more controversial nominees. Democrats have framed him as a Trump loyalist, raising concerns that the FBI under his leadership could go after the incoming president’s political enemies.

On Thursday, ahead of what is sure to be a contentious nomination hearing, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin demanded that the Justice Department, Defense Department and the Director of National Intelligence turn over information related to what he called “credible allegations” of Patel’s misconduct during his time in the Trump White House.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Durbin wrote that as Biden prepared to take office following the 2020 election, Patel “was accused of impeding the Biden Administration’s incoming transition work” with the Pentagon.

Patel, a political appointee, injected himself into transition processes usually overseen by nonpartisan officials and ignored requests from Biden’s team, the Illinois Democrat said.

In a separate letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Durbin detailed Patel’s involvement in what he called a campaign by Jeffery Clark, the Justice Department’s former acting assistant attorney general, to use Justice Department resources to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Patel, Durbin said, was supposed to help Clark identify a “trustworthy” person at the agency to assist in those efforts.

The Illinois lawmaker said the Justice Department had received reports that Patel may have improperly declassified information favorable to then-President Trump. He also suggested that the nominee had “exaggerated or distorted” his role in the Justice Department’s investigation into the events surrounding the 2012 assassination of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, Libya.

“As you know, the FBI is the principal federal law enforcement investigative agency, tasked with protecting all Americans,” the lawmaker told Garland and Austin. “The Director must be able to execute the FBI’s mission in a nonpartisan, impartial manner that is above reproach."

“The credible allegations against Mr. Patel outlined above are deeply troubling,” he added, “and the Committee is unable to properly consider his nomination without more information on his underlying conduct.”

Durbin requested that the Justice Department, Pentagon and DNI’s office provide all records and communications between Patel, Clark and officials at each agency related to the 2020 election. The lawmaker also requested documents related to the nominee’s involvement in the Benghazi inquiry.

As of Thursday afternoon, Patel’s confirmation hearing had yet to be scheduled — but it is likely to take place before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which Durbin is the Democratic ranking member.

Although Patel has yet to take the witness chair, his name was invoked repeatedly on Wednesday as Trump’s attorney general nominee Pam Bondi got a grilling of her own before the Judiciary Committee.

Bondi, who if confirmed would oversee the FBI, faced sharp questions from lawmakers, who demanded she weigh in on Patel — and in particular, on reports that he has curated an “enemies list” of Biden administration officials and Democrats whom he reportedly plans to investigate under a second Trump presidency.

Bondi, however, defended Patel, telling the Judiciary Committee that she did not believe such a list existed.

“I know that Kash Patel has had 60 jury trials as a public defender [and] as a prosecutor,” Bondi said. “He has great experience in the Intel Department and the Department of Defense. I know Kash, and I believe that Kash is the right person at this time for this job.”

Bondi refused to answer lawmakers’ other questions about Patel, including approving statements he has made about the QAnon conspiracy theory.

“I look forward to hearing his testimony about QAnon in front of this committee,” she said, eliciting a chuckle from the Judiciary Committee chamber.

Before his November nomination as FBI director, Patel was a senior advisor to acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell. Prior to that, he was chief of staff to acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller and was a federal prosecutor in the Justice Department.

If confirmed, he would replace FBI director Christopher Wray, another Trump appointee who has said he will step down before the president-elect’s inauguration.

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