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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Takeaways from FBI Director Kash Patel’s Senate hearing
By Holmes Lybrand, Hannah Rabinowitz, Devan Cole, CNN
Updated:
5:09 PM EDT, Tue September 16, 2025
Source: CNN
FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday ran into several shouting matches
with Democratic senators who pressed him on the bungling of the Epstein
files, firings of agents for alleged political reasons and warnings
that President Donald Trump, eventually, would turn on the director
despite his fealty.
Patel, who has come under heavy criticism for his social media posts in
the early days of the investigation into Charlie Kirk’s murder, held
his poise for most of the oversight hearing before the GOP-controlled
Senate Judiciary Committee, repeating tried-and-true methods set out by
directors before him to avoid specific answers and denying accusations
that he’s politicized the agency.
In one outburst, however, Patel called Sen. Adam Schiff “a disgrace
to this institution” and a “political buffoon at best” after
being pressed on who made the decision to move Jeffrey Epstein’s
associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, to a minimum-security prison after she
sat for a multi-day interview with a top Justice Department official.
“You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States
Senate,” Patel said as Schiff, a Democrat from California, attempted
to speak over Patel.
Republicans rallied around Patel during Tuesday’s hearing, praising
law enforcement for the capture of Kirk’s alleged killer and citing
other successes from the agency.
“I’ve actually admired the way you’ve tried to keep your
composure over the course of this,” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said
before offering some advice.
“The last one I’d just coach you on,” Tillis said of the shouting
match with Schiff. “Don’t take the bait … just sit down in the
quiet confidence that you’re doing a good job.”
Controversial handling of Kirk shooting
Much of the hourslong hearing centered around the assassination last
week of Kirk, including how the administration was dealing with a rise
of political violence in the US.
At times, Patel was forced to confront harsh criticism from Democrats
who refused to give him a pass over how he handled the early stages of
the investigation into the killing. The director said on social media
hours after the incident that a “subject” for the shooting was in
custody. But he soon had to walk that back after that individual was
released.
“What we had at the time was a subject in custody in relation to this
investigation,” Patel told Sen. Peter Welch when asked about the
posts. “I put that information out, and then when we interviewed him,
I put out the results of that.”
Patel admitted he could have “been more careful in my verbiage” but
maintained he was being transparent with the public and giving timely
updates.
But when the Vermont Democrat said the posts were a “mistake,”
Patel quickly said he didn’t “see it as a mistake.”
Earlier in the hearing, the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dick
Durbin, was even more forceful in his assessment of Patel’s actions
following the assassination, arguing that the director had “sparked
mass confusion” with the posts.
“Mr. Patel was so anxious to take credit for finding Mr. Kirk’s
assassin that he violated one of the basics of effective law
enforcement: At critical stages of an investigation, shut up and let
the professionals do their job,” Durbin said.
Blame game on the Epstein files
As Democrats tore into Patel over a laundry list of issues, the
director wasted no time trying to shirk responsibility on one major
matter – the Epstein affair – in an effort to keep the
administration’s hands clean in an area that’s caused consternation
for both parties.
He blamed Alex Acosta, who previously oversaw a non-prosecution
agreement Epstein as a US attorney in Florida during the George W. Bush
administration, for committing the “original sin in the Epstein
case.”
In the deal, Epstein avoided federal charges by agreeing to serve 13
months in prison on Florida state prostitution charges and to register
as a sex offender. “If I were the FBI director then, it wouldn’t
have happened,” Patel said.
Patel maintained that the structure of the deal is, in large part, the
reason the Trump administration did not release troves of evidence in
the case despite its promise to do so.
The agreement meant the court mandates protective orders “legally
prohibiting anyone from ever seeing that material ever again without
the permission of the court.”
A Justice Department review later found that in striking the deal. He
went on to serve as Trump’s Labor secretary in his first term.
Patel’s handling of firings at FBI
Patel faced repeated questions over his firing of FBI agents – some
of whom held top positions in the bureau before being summarily let go
in early August and have since sued.
Democratic senators attempted to drill down on accusations that the
firings were based in part on political pressure from the White House
to fire agents involved in Trump-related investigations.
Patel denied again and again that he ever fired an agent at the behest
of the White House and insisted that no firing was due to case
assignment or whom the agent voted for in the last presidential
election.
“So you’re testifying today that you played no role in the firing
of even a single FBI agent for political retribution?” Schiff asked
Patel directly.
“None for political retribution,” Patel said, adding later that
“everybody is allowed to make their allegations.”
The lawsuit filed by three former agents alleges, in part, that Patel
told former acting director Brian Driscoll in an early August
conversation that his bosses, “had directed him to fire anyone who
they identified as having worked on a criminal investigation against
President Donald J. Trump.”
“Any termination at the FBI was a decision that I made based on the
evidence that I have as a director of the FBI, and it’s my job, and
I’m not going to shy away from it,” Patel said.
‘I think you’re not going to be around long’
Patel faced down several prominent Democrats with little fanfare,
dodging some questions and flatly denying the premise of others.
But the first significant break in the relatively calm hearing came
after New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker told Patel that eventually, Trump
“will cut you loose.”
“Mr. Patel, I think you’re not going to be around long,” Booker
warned Patel. “I think this might be your last oversight hearing.”
Booker told Patel that “as much as you supplicate yourself to the
will of Donald Trump and not the Constitution of the United States of
America,” Trump has shown “he is not loyal to people like you.”
Booker criticized Patel for shifting agents to focus on immigration and
allegedly firing agents for political reasons.
“I believe you have made our country weaker and less safe,” Booker
said.
Patel replied by telling Booker, “that rant of false information does
not bring this country together.”
“My God, my God,” Booker said. “You’re going to lecture me on
dividing this country?”
The two began shouting over each other, with Patel telling Booker the
senator was “an embarrassment” and Booker ridiculing Patel for
“making a mockery of this committee.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Patel concluded.
Following the exchange, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz commented that “it
used to be that to see theater you had to go to the Kennedy Center.”
“Now, apparently you need only go to the Senate Judiciary Committee
and see our Senate Democrats berating the director of the FBI,” Cruz
said. “What is remarkable is what Senator Booker was berating
director Patel about: He wasn’t berating him for failing to do his
job, but rather, he was furious for Director Patel for successfully
doing his job.”
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