What's new

US Senate confirms Kash Patel as FBI director in a narrow, controversial vote [Post Updated #33]

FearlessRoar

FearlessRoar

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Sep 11, 2023
Runs
29,514

Who is Kash Patel, Trump's pick to shake up the FBI?​


Kash Patel, a one-time aide to President Donald Trump, will inch closer to leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) when he sits for his US Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday.

Patel, a former Department of Defence (DoD) chief of staff, is a fervent Trump supporter and a fellow critic of the US government's top law enforcement agency.

He has previously suggested dramatically limiting the FBI's authority, which Republicans believe has unfairly targeted conservatives in recent years. The FBI's outgoing director Christopher Wray has denied such allegations.

Critics say Patel is unqualified to lead the agency and wants to use the job to effect partisan retribution on critics of Trump.

The FBI director leads 37,000 employees across 55 US field offices. They also oversee 350 satellite offices and more than 60 other foreign locations expected to cover almost 200 countries.

The confirmation hearing will see Patel questioned by senators from across the political divide.

Democrats are likely to focus on Patel's previous attacks on the FBI, as well as his professional experience and past track record at the hearing.

Knowledgeable sources told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, earlier this week that Democratic senators would seek to show that Patel had engaged in a pattern of poor judgment and self-aggrandisement, to cast doubt on his fitness to lead the FBI.

In recent days, Democrat Dick Durbin, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a letter saying Patel was "unfit to lead" the agency.

Citing an unnamed source, Durbin accused Patel of leaking news of an exchange of American hostages held by Houthis in Yemen in October 2020 to the Wall Street Journal "several hours before the hostages were in confirmed custody of the United States" - potentially endangering the deal.

A source close to Patel spoke of his achievements in a statement to CBS. "Mr Patel was a public defender, decorated prosecutor, and accomplished national security official that kept Americans safe," they said.

"He has a track record of success in every branch of government, from the court room to congressional hearing room to the situation room," the statement added. "There is no veracity to this anonymous source's complaints about protocol."

Alex Gray, former chief of staff for the National Security Council (NSC) during the first Trump administration, further rebuffed Durbin's letter in his own statement to CBS, calling the source's statements "simply absurd".

"In everything he did at the NSC and DoD, Kash put the interests of the American people, and particularly the interests of American hostages and unlawful detainees and their families, first."

Patel is also likely to be questioned on his previous comments about the FBI - the leadership of which he has strongly criticised in the past.

In his memoir Government Gangster, published in 2023, Patel called for an eradication of what he called "government tyranny" within the FBI by firing "the top ranks".

Since his appointment, he has made headlines for his so-called enemies list - a list of people in his book appendix who he says are members of the "deep-state".

The 60-name roster includes former President Joe Biden, former Attorney General Merrick Garland and former National Security Adviser John Bolton, among others.

Some Americans believe the "deep state", of which Patel is critical, is a synonym for an unelected bureaucratic machine that secretly runs the country for sinister purposes.

Attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, who would be Patel's boss if both are confirmed by the Senate, told lawmakers during her confirmation hearing earlier this month that there would be no enemies list at the Department of Justice (DoJ) under her leadership.

Patel, the son of Indian immigrants, is a former defence lawyer and federal prosecutor. He caught the attention of Trump - who was then serving his first time as president - after becoming a senior counsel to the House of Representatives intelligence committee in 2017.

He quickly rose within Trump's circle after he was hired as a national security aide in 2019, and in 2020 was appointed chief of staff to the head of the Pentagon.

As well as his 2023 memoir, Patel has published two pro-Trump children's books.

He is on the board of Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns Trump's social media platform, Truth Social. He has also reportedly had a consulting contract with the company.

After announcing Patel as his FBI pick, Trump posted on social media calling him "an advocate for truth, accountability, and the constitution".

"Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and 'America First' fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice, and protecting the American people," Trump said.

www.bbc.com

Who is Kash Patel, Trump's pick to shake up the FBI?

The US president's loyal supporter hopes to be confirmed to run an agency that he has criticised.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
'Total mischaracterisation': Kash Patel distances himself from problematic past at Senate confirmation hearing

Notorious ‘conspiracy theorist’ Kash Patel attempted to navigate through the intense Senate confirmation hearing, which was conducted to determine whether US President Donald Trump’s pick is fit to be the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the agency which he once wanted to shut down. During the hearing, one of the instances that garnered attention was his hesitation to answer whether he would use his position to investigate some of Trump’s political opponents.

The hearing revolved around Patel’s provocative public remarks, in which he attacked the very federal agency he is planning to lead. The senators also questioned his ability to resist political pressure from the White House. Patel, who has been a longtime Trump supporter and was part of the president’s first stint in the White House tried to distance himself from the statement he made on numerous podcasts and in the appendix of his book ‘Government Gangsters’.

In the past, Patel has shared a list of people he believed were Trump’s adversaries in government. The list included former attorneys general and FBI directors. During the hearing, Patel insisted that it was not the list of Trump’s enemies.“It’s not an enemies list,” Patel said. “It’s a total mischaracterization," he remarked. However, the Democratic lawmakers raised concerns that he might use his far-reaching powers to please Trump.

Patel remains hesitant

When pressed over the matter, Patel refused to explicitly say that he would not use his position to investigate former FBI Director James Comey or others on the list. He maintained that he would not investigate anyone unless they had broken the law. Interestingly, Patel mentioned that the FBI was answerable to the Justice Department and, ultimately, the White House. This was notably in contrast to the reply given by Trump’s attorney general nominee Pam Bondi during her Senate hearing, where she said that the DoJ is answerable to the constitution of the United States.

In another instance, Democrats caught Patel in an awkward moment as they unexpectedly brought up his role as a witness in the criminal investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents. It is pertinent to note that during the investigation in the case, Patel was subpoenaed to testify about whether the documents the FBI seized at Mar-a-Lago had been declassified under a “standing declassification order”.

After getting partial immunity, Patel told Senator Cory Booker, that he had witnessed Trump issue a declassification order for some documents, but he did not actually know whether they applied to the documents found at Mar-a-Lago.

Democrats remain unimpressed

After the hearing, it became apparent that Democrats were less likely to support Patel’s nomination. Still, Patel attempted to distance himself from his most problematic comments even as Senator Amy Klobuchar read back his past remarks verbatim. Patel said that her quotations were “grotesque” mischaracterizations at one point in time, he did not remember making the comments which were being read back to him.

“I am quoting his own words,” Klobuchar said. The January 6 riots were also mentioned during the hearing. When asked about Trump’s decision to pardon 1,600 people charged in connection to the attack, many of whom were convicted of assaulting police officers, Patel made it clear that he has always rejected violence against law enforcement officials and did not agree with Trump’s commutations.

The Indian-origin lawyer formally served as a public defender in Florida before joining the justice department in 2014 as a line prosecutor in the national security division. In 2017, Patel became one of the top Republican aides on the House Intelligence Committee, where he wrote a provocative memo charging the FBI and the Justice Department of abusing surveillance powers to spy on a Trump adviser. The memo was eventually criticised as misleading, though an inspector general later found errors with aspects of the surveillance.

SOURCE: https://www.firstpost.com/world/uni...-at-senate-confirmation-hearing-13857986.html
 
Patel clan has gone from dominating US gas stations to now the leadin the FBI. Damn .. them Gujjus sure are resourceful.
 
So first the Democrats under Clinton destroyed the CIA. And now the Republicans under Trump will destroy the FBI.

Nice.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
I'll reserve my judgement until we establish what his name is short for. Is it Kashif or Kashvir or Kashdeep.
Click to expand...

Yup.

I don't know why some of these Indians change their names. Are they ashamed of their cultures? I thought India was number one. :yk

There was a guy named Inderjeet Singh. He changed his name to Andy. Cringe.
 
sweep_shot said:
Yup.

I don't know why some of these Indians change their names. Are they ashamed of their cultures? I thought India was number one. :yk

There was a guy named Inderjeet Singh. He changed his name to Andy. Cringe.
Click to expand...
He didn’t change his name. Kash is a short form for Kashyap and in America people often shorten names.
Robert - Rob or Bob
Venkatesh - Venky
Salman - Sal

Get the gist?
 
charlie007 said:
He didn’t change his name. Kash is a short form for Kashyap and in America people often shorten names.
Robert - Rob or Bob
Venkatesh - Venky
Salman - Sal

Get the gist?
Click to expand...

He doesn't know. No Bangladeshi has become this relevant.
 
You’ll struggle to find a Chinese with a Chinese first name in America. They assume American first names like Peter Chen, Dan Qui, and Ethan Zhang. It’s easier to pronounce those names.
 
RexRex said:
Patel clan has gone from dominating US gas stations to now the leadin the FBI. Damn .. them Gujjus sure are resourceful.
Click to expand...
Most hardworking group from India. They shine wherever they go like Sindhis, Marwari and Baniyas.
They are always looking for an opportunity to open a business wherever they find an opportunity. It takes guts and extreme hardwork. But they do it and make it look easy.
 
Champ_Pal said:
Most hardworking group from India. They shine wherever they go like Sindhis, Marwari and Baniyas.
They are always looking for an opportunity to open a business wherever they find an opportunity. It takes guts and extreme hardwork. But they do it and make it look easy.
Click to expand...
They do hardwork by stealing taxes, hiring non documented folks on cash paying them below minimum wage and basically abuse the system anyway possible from selling LMIAs/H1Bs for 50k$ a piece to what not. I speak from personal observation.
 
Champ_Pal said:
Most hardworking group from India. They shine wherever they go like Sindhis, Marwari and Baniyas.
They are always looking for an opportunity to open a business wherever they find an opportunity. It takes guts and extreme hardwork. But they do it and make it look easy.
Click to expand...
Punjabis too bro.They will invest in deep rural places and gets a good business out of it. Same goes in aus .
 
Vikram1989 said:
Punjabis too bro.They will invest in deep rural places and gets a good business out of it. Same goes in aus .
Click to expand...

We Punjabis are GREAT at creating businesses.

But our lavish lifestyle and family feuds often ruins it for them.

Punjabis make some money, they wanna buy them big trucks and houses. Patels reinvest
 
Vikram1989 said:
Punjabis too bro.They will invest in deep rural places and gets a good business out of it. Same goes in aus .
Click to expand...
Yes. Punjabis too. Very business minded, creative and risk taking. Except Punjabis do not get mocked or hated like the Baniya community.
 
Not good news for the like of GurPatwant Pannu who spew venom against India and openly support Khalistan. I feel his days are numbered. Trump administration is not going to let organizations like Sikhs for Justice use USA as a base and openly spew hatred against India and call for violence.
 
Bhaijaan said:
Bro you are always a Bharatiya no matter what. Even in every Pakistani’s heart a Bharat lives to this day.its an eternal bond. Once you’re part of the brotherhood you’re part of the brotherhood.
Click to expand...

I think Pakistan is probably the only country where Indians are respected to be honest. They are basically seen as nerds in the west, but to be fair, we westerners don't really give due respect to hard work and intellect, that is why we have such stupid terms as nerds in the first place.
 
Champ_Pal said:
Using US as a base to undermine India which is an ally of US.

That is enough to hunt down those vermin. They had their time under far leftie liberals. Not anymore.
Click to expand...

You are thinking with your India hat on. Most Americans are not concerned about India's internal politics, and I would imagine an FBI official will probably want to avoid anything to do with India to show where his loyalties really lie.
 
Champ_Pal said:
Not good news for the like of GurPatwant Pannu who spew venom against India and openly support Khalistan. I feel his days are numbered. Trump administration is not going to let organizations like Sikhs for Justice use USA as a base and openly spew hatred against India and call for violence.
Click to expand...

Release JFK files ❌

Deport Khalistani’s back to their homeland, Brampton ✅
 

Kash Patel confirmed to head FBI despite fears he will go after Trump foes​


The Senate on Thursday narrowly voted to confirm Kash Patel as director of the FBI, moving to place him atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency despite doubts from Democrats about his qualifications and concerns he will do Donald Trump’s bidding and go after the Republican president’s adversaries.

“I cannot imagine a worse choice,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told colleagues before the 51-49 vote by the GOP-controlled Senate. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the lone Republican holdouts.

A Trump loyalist who has fiercely criticized the agency he will now lead, Patel will inherit an FBI gripped by turmoil as the Justice Department over the past month has forced out a group of senior bureau officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Patel has spoken of his desire to implement major changes at the FBI, including a reduced footprint in Washington and a renewed emphasis on the bureau’s traditional crime-fighting duties rather than the intelligence-gathering work that has come to define its mandate over the past two decades as national security threats have proliferated.

But he’s also echoed Trump’s stated desire for reprisal, raising alarm among Democrats for saying before he was nominated that he would “come after” anti-Trump “conspirators” in the federal government and the media.

In a statement posted after the vote on the social media platform X, Patel wrote that he was honored to be confirmed as the ninth director of the FBI, an institution he said had a “storied legacy.”

“The American people deserve an FBI that is transparent, accountable, and committed to justice. The politicalization of our justice system has eroded public trust — but that ends today,” he wrote. He said his mission as director was to “let good cops be cops — and rebuild trust in the FBI.”

Republicans angry over what they see as law enforcement bias against conservatives during the Democratic Biden administration, as well as criminal investigations into Trump, have rallied behind Patel as the right person for the job.

“Mr. Patel wants to make the FBI accountable once again—get back the reputation that the FBI has had historically for law enforcement,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said this week before Patel was confirmed. “He wants to hold the FBI accountable to Congress, to the president and, most importantly, to the people they serve — the American taxpayer.”

Democrats complained about Patel’s lack of management experience compared with previous FBI directors and they highlighted incendiary past statements that they said called his judgment into question.

“I am absolutely sure of this one thing: this vote will haunt anyone who votes for him. They will rue the day they did it,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat.

He added: “To my Republican colleagues, think about what you will tell your constituents” and family “about why you voted for this person who will so completely and utterly disgrace this office and do such grave damage to our nation’s justice system.”

About a half-dozen Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee gathered outside FBI headquarters earlier Thursday in a last-ditch plea to derail his confirmation.

“This is someone we cannot trust,” said Sen. Adam Schiff of California. “This is someone who lacks the character to do this job, someone who lacks the integrity to do this job. We know that, our Republican colleagues know that.”

Patel’s eyebrow-raising remarks on hundreds of podcasts and in other interviews over the past four years include referring to law enforcement officials who investigated Trump as “criminal gangsters," saying some Jan. 6 rioters were “political prisoners” and opining that FBI headquarters should be shut down and turned into a museum for the so-called deep state.

At his Senate hearing in January, Patel said Democrats were taking some of his comments out of context or misunderstanding the broader point he was trying to make. He also denied the idea that a list in a book he authored of government officials who he said were part of a “deep state” amounted to an “enemies list,” calling that a “total mischaracterization.”

“I have no interest, no desire and will not, if confirmed, go backwards,” Patel said as he vowed that there would be “no politicization at the FBI” and "no retributive actions taken.”

He said at the hearing that “the only thing that will matter if I’m confirmed” is a “de-weaponized, de-politicized system of law enforcement completely devoted to rigorous obedience to the Constitution and a singular standard of justice."

Patel was selected in November to replace Christopher Wray, who was picked by Trump in 2017 and who resigned at the conclusion of the Biden administration to make way for his chosen successor. Wray infuriated Trump throughout his tenure, including after FBI agents searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August 2022 for classified documents in one of two federal investigations that resulted in indictments against Trump that were dismissed after his election win.

FBI directors are given 10-year terms as a way to insulate them from political influence and keep them from becoming beholden to a particular president or administration. But Trump fired the FBI director he inherited, James Comey, after Comey had spent over three years on the job and replaced Wray after more than seven years in the position.

Since Wray’s resignation, the FBI has been led by interim leaders, who have clashed with the Justice Department over its demands for details about the agents who investigated the Capitol riot — a move seen as a possible prelude to broader firings. Patel denied having any knowledge of discussions about potential firings, but a letter from Durbin last week that cited information that he said had come from insiders suggested that Patel may have been covertly involved in that process.

Trump has said that he expects some of those agents will be fired.

Patel is a former federal defender and Justice Department counterterrorism prosecutor. He attracted Trump’s attention during the president’s first term when, as a staffer on the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee, Patel helped produce a memo that showcased surveillance-related errors during the FBI’s investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Patel later joined Trump’s administration, both as a counterterrorism official at the National Security Council and as chief of staff to the defense secretary.

www.france24.com

Kash Patel confirmed to head FBI despite fears he will go after Trump foes

Kash Patel, a fierce Donald Trump loyalist, has been confirmed as the new head of the FBI. Critics fear that Patel has been placed on the position to run the president’s errands and to go after Trump…
www.france24.com www.france24.com
 
Champ_Pal said:
Using US as a base to undermine India which is an ally of US.

That is enough to hunt down those vermin. They had their time under far leftie liberals. Not anymore.
Click to expand...
Yea! not happening.

India isn't an ally of US, India is there to serve US interest.
 
Itachi said:
Well.... That goes against the logic what Brit Pakistanis present against their loyalty towards pakistan.
Click to expand...

Indians generally start to believe they become westerners when in the west, until they look in the mirror. Even if crossing over illegally over the Mexican border.

Patel isn't a hindutva fanatic so I think many Indians will be disappointed in his tenure. He actually has a lot of Muslim friends
 
KingKhanWC said:
Indians generally start to believe they become westerners when in the west, until they look in the mirror. Even if crossing over illegally over the Mexican border.

Patel isn't a hindutva fanatic so I think many Indians will be disappointed in his tenure. He actually has a lot of Muslim friends
Click to expand...
.... True may be but that has nothing do with my post.
 
cricketjoshila said:
And Pakistanis decided that that's the truth.
Click to expand...

What someone perceives as truth can be influenced by their perspective, beliefs, environment, and emotions.

This opinion is based on the ‘to do list’ given to Modi during his last visit to the US.

I understand why you might feel inclined to take offense.
 
HalBass9 said:
What someone perceives as truth can be influenced by their perspective, beliefs, environment, and emotions.

This opinion is based on the ‘to do list’ given to Modi during his last visit to the US.

I understand why you might feel inclined to take offense.
Click to expand...

To do list? That list was shared with you or the public?

l am asking because i want to know how this to do list supposedly given to the Indian PM by the American President is known to pakistanis?
 
KingKhanWC said:
Indians generally start to believe they become westerners when in the west, until they look in the mirror. Even if crossing over illegally over the Mexican border.

Patel isn't a hindutva fanatic so I think many Indians will be disappointed in his tenure. He actually has a lot of Muslim friends
Click to expand...

There are over 700,000 illegal Indians in USA. Possibly way more than that.


Great to know Patel is not a Hindutva fanatic. Hindutva is an extremist ideology. :inti
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

sweep_shot
Indian scam call centers looted over $10 billion in 11 months from US senior citizens
2
Replies
98
Views
1K
sweep_shot
sweep_shot
Bhaag Viru Bhaag
US sends back 205 illegal Indian immigrants aboard US Air Force’s C-17 Aircraft, tariff whip next
2 3
Replies
203
Views
2K
FearlessRoar
FearlessRoar
Bhaag Viru Bhaag
Indian couples in US rush for C-section to beat Trump's citizenship deadline
2
Replies
93
Views
960
JaDed
JaDed
R
Donald Trump says the US has approved the extradition of a suspect in the 2008 Mumbai attacks
Replies
21
Views
335
FearlessRoar
FearlessRoar
The Bald Eagle
With Donald Trump's 2024 election win, James David Vance becomes vice president-elect [Post Updated #83]
2
Replies
87
Views
2K
deltexas
D
Back
Top