Kash Patel Clears Key Hurdle, Will Get Full Senate Next
The U.S. Senate, led by Republicans, advanced Kash Patel’s nomination to become the next director of the FBI on Thursday, overcoming a filibuster with a 51-47 vote.
Republican lawmakers expressed satisfaction that President Donald Trump’s pick “has the votes” and is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate later that day.
The Senate, voting along party lines, decided 48–45 to move forward with debating Patel’s nomination. As per sources familiar with the proceedings who spoke to the New York Post, this will allow for up to 30 hours of debate before the final confirmation vote on Thursday.
GOP senators have praised the 44-year-old Long Island native for his background as a prosecutor and his work as a national security aide in Trump’s first administration. They have also commended his commitment to refocusing the FBI on its core law enforcement responsibilities and ending what they describe as the agency’s “weaponizing” of politics.
During his confirmation hearing, Patel pledged to “cut in half” crime rates across multiple categories, citing statistics such as “100,000 rapes … 100,000 drug overdoses from Chinese fentanyl and Mexican heroin, and … 17,000 homicides.”
If confirmed, Patel will take on a 10-year term as one of the country’s highest-ranking law enforcement officials. He has expressed admiration for the rank-and-file FBI agents, referring to them as “courageous, apolitical warriors of justice.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) emphasized Patel’s extensive vetting process. “Mr. Patel has undergone a rigorous vetting. He produced more than a thousand pages of records and disclosed over a thousand interviews. He underwent an FBI background investigation, produced a financial disclosure, and worked with ethics officials to identify and resolve potential conflicts of interest,” Grassley stated in a hearing last week.
“At his hearing, he answered questions for more than five hours and provided 147 pages of responses to written questions. We’ve examined every detail of his life, and he’s been subjected to relentless attacks on his character the whole time,” he added.
Grassley also highlighted Patel’s role in uncovering the events surrounding Crossfire Hurricane. “Mr. Patel was instrumental in exposing Crossfire Hurricane,” he said. “He showed that the Democratic National Committee funded false allegations against President Trump, that the DOJ and FBI hid information from the FISA court to wiretap a presidential campaign, and that an FBI lawyer lied in the process.”
Democrats on the Judiciary panel unanimously opposed Patel’s nomination. They delayed the initial approval vote by a week, citing concerns that he misrepresented facts during his confirmation hearing. When the committee finally voted, every Democrat rejected his nomination.
Patel began his career as a public defender in Florida before becoming a federal prosecutor under the Obama administration. He later served as an aide to then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and held a national security role in Trump’s first term.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel, along with other critics, accused Patel of misleading the committee about his involvement in the removal of senior FBI officials after Trump took office. They also pointed to his alleged role in producing a song performed by federal prisoners convicted for their roles in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
During his confirmation hearing, Patel distanced himself from some of Trump’s positions, particularly regarding pardons for January 6 rioters, including those who assaulted law enforcement while disrupting Congress’s certification of 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 told the Judiciary panel earlier this month.
In November, Trump announced his decision to nominate Patel, citing the need to “end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border.”
“Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI,” Trump stated at the time.