Though he is still likely to be confirmed, Democrats postponed the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote on FBI director nominee Kash Patel until Thursday.
Democrats moved to “hold over” the nomination when the Senate Judiciary Committee met to decide whether to approve Patel. This means the committee’s vote was postponed for a week and will now be on Thursday.
Patel got two major pieces of good news this week.
First, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley called Democrats attacks on Patel “baseless.” Grassley also said that he’s confident that Patel will pass both the committee vote Thursday morning and the full vote in the chamber led by Republicans.
Secondly, over 680,000 police officers asked the Senate to quickly confirm Patel as Trump’s choice to lead the FBI. This comes as Democrats on the panel have moved to delay his confirmation before a vote that is scheduled for this Thursday.
The total number of law enforcement supporters was only given to Fox News Digital. It includes state, local, and federal backers from groups such as the National Sheriffs’ Association, the National Police Association, and more than 370,000 members of the National Fraternal Order of Police, who backed Patel on Monday night.
“Throughout the course of his federal career, Mr. Patel has become very well acquainted with our national security apparatus and the threats the United States faces abroad,” the group said in the letter to the Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
This group built up Patel’s work as a trial lawyer for the National Security Division of the Justice Department, at the National Security Council, and later at the Department of Defense, where he was chief of staff to the acting secretary of the department.
They also cited a “broad-ranging conversation” the group had with Patel, in which they said he “made a compelling case about his commitment to public safety and ways in which the FBI can support state and local law enforcement agencies.”
“He has committed to building on the level of trust and collegiality the FBI enjoys with the law enforcement community, and we will all benefit from the enhanced impact the FBI can have on public safety in our communities.”
The groups have praised what they described as Patel’s “unwavering commitment” to upholding the rule of law, defending justice, and protecting the American people.
The endorsements come just a few days before the Senate Judiciary Committee is supposed to vote on whether to move forward with Patel’s nomination to be FBI director. This vote is being closely watched by Democrats on the Judiciary Committee because of recent actions by the Trump administration to investigate FBI employees involved in the investigations that started on January 6.
Trump also caused new worries and criticism last week when he said he was going to fire at least some of the FBI agents who were working on the investigation into what happened on January 6; he told reporters that he thought at least some of the agents “were corrupt.”
“Those people are gone, or they will be gone,” Trump said of the agents, adding that it will be done “quickly and very surgically.”
Patel, on the other hand, used his confirmation hearing at the end of last month to reassure lawmakers that he would protect agents from political backlash or attempts to turn the FBI into a weapon.
“All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution,” Patel told Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., during that hearing.
Patel accused his critics of “intentionally putting false information into the public ether and creating more public discourse. “The only thing that will matter if I am confirmed as director of the FBI is a de-weaponized, depoliticized system of law enforcement completely devoted to rigorous obedience of the Constitution and a singular standard of justice,” he told the Senate panel.
