Judge Rejects Push to Disclose Trump Report Before FBI Vote
Ahead of the Senate vote on former President Trump’s nominee for FBI director, there was a last-minute push to get the U.S. Justice Department to release sections of a report detailing criminal investigations into Trump. However, the request was denied by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington, D.C., rejected the request, citing a ruling issued by another federal judge in Florida.
For now, the Justice Department is required to withhold the second volume of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report, which focuses on Trump’s handling of classified materials.
On Thursday, the Republican-led U.S. Senate advanced Patel’s confirmation process with a 51-47 vote to overcome the filibuster.
Republican lawmakers expressed confidence that Trump’s nominee “has the votes” to secure confirmation by the full Senate later in the day.
In a 48–45 vote along party lines, the Senate agreed to move forward with debating the nomination. Sources familiar with the process told the New York Post that this will trigger 30 hours of discussion before the final confirmation vote on Thursday.
Republican senators have commended Patel, 44, from Long Island, for his background as a prosecutor and national security aide during Trump’s first term. They also lauded his commitment to refocusing the FBI on its primary law enforcement role and preventing the agency from “weaponizing” politics.
During his confirmation hearing, Patel vowed to “cut in half” crimes across various categories, referencing figures such as “100,000 rapes … 100,000 drug overdoses from Chinese fentanyl and Mexican heroin, and … 17,000 homicides.”
If confirmed, Patel—who has called rank-and-file FBI agents “courageous, apolitical warriors of justice”—would serve a 10-year term as one of the country’s top law enforcement officials.
“Mr. Patel has undergone a rigorous vetting process. He provided over a thousand pages of records, disclosed more than a thousand interviews, and completed an FBI background check. He also submitted a financial disclosure and collaborated with ethics officials to address any potential conflicts of interest,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) stated in last week’s hearing.
“At his hearing, he responded to questions for more than five hours and submitted 147 pages of written answers. Every aspect of his life has been scrutinized, and he has faced continuous attacks on his character,” Grassley added.
“Mr. Patel was instrumental in exposing Crossfire Hurricane,” Grassley said last week. “He demonstrated that the Democratic National Committee financed false allegations against President Trump, that the DOJ and FBI withheld information from the FISA court to surveil a presidential campaign, and that an FBI lawyer falsified information in the process.”
Every Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee opposed Patel’s nomination. They delayed the initial approval vote by a week, accusing him of lying during his confirmation hearing. When the committee finally voted, all Democrats rejected his nomination.
Patel’s career began as a public defender in Florida before he transitioned into a federal prosecutor role in the Obama Justice Department. He later served as an aide to then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and as a national security official in Trump’s first administration.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Judiciary panel’s leading Democrat, and other members claimed Patel misled the committee regarding his involvement in efforts to remove senior FBI officials after Trump took office, as well as his role in producing a song performed by federal prisoners convicted for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Patel stated that he did not fully align with Trump’s stance, particularly concerning mass pardons for individuals convicted for their actions on Jan. 6, including those who attacked Capitol Police while attempting to disrupt Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory.
“I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement,” Patel said in his confirmation hearing earlier this month.