Kash Patel, President Trump’s pick to head the F.B.I., evaded the question of whether he would investigate officials on a published list of his perceived enemies during his confirmation hearing on Thursday as he sought to allay fears about his fitness to serve and his fealty to President Trump In trying to distance himself from far-right associates and his own public statements, Patel, who the New York Times calls a cocky and confrontational Trump loyalist, did suggest that he disagreed with Trump’s decision to pardon Jan. 6 rioters who attacked law enforcement officials. It was a rare divergence from a president who selected him to run the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency.
Patel's nomination has upended the post-Watergate tradition of picking nonpartisan FBI directors with extensive law enforcement experience. Patel, 44, could provide Trump with a direct line into the bureau. eliminating guardrails against White House interference. Democrats accused Patel of prioritizing his allegiance to Trump over adherence to the rule of law, a charge the nominee forcefully denied. When Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) , asked if he planned to investigate former FBI director James Comey and others he has attacked publicly, Patel said he would abide by the law and the Constitution and would scrutinize only those he deemed likely to have committed crimes. “Will you lie for the president of the United States? Will you lie for Donald Trump?” asked Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). “No,” Patel answered Patel, who has repeatedly accused the bureau’s leadership of weaponizing its vast powers to target Trump, told the committee he believed that 98 percent of the F.B.I. was made up of “courageous apolitical warriors for justice” who “just need better leadership.”
He did not explain how he determined that the other 2 percent, about 760 people out of a work force of 38,000 employees, were supposedly partisan. Patel said his main goal would be to fight violent crime and protect the U.S. from three national security threats — terrorism, Chinese espionage and Iranian aggression.