Kash Patel, Confirmed

Joyce Vance Feb 21

The Senate bent the knee again, confirming Kash Patel for a 10-year term as director of the FBI. The 51-49 vote was mostly along party lines, with Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining the Democrats this afternoon.

Patel’s primary qualification for the job is his loyalty to Donald Trump. He did a stint as a defense lawyer in Florida and one as a federal prosecutor in DOJ’s National Security Division, but he lacks the broad experience it takes to run the nation’s top law enforcement agency, which has broad investigatory powers and responsibilities.

Read more about the FBI’s work here.

The current process of appointing directors to a single 10-year term in office was established following the death of J. Edgar Hoover, who served as director for 48 years. It can be extended if Congress votes in favor, as they have done only one time, extending Director Robert Mueller’s term for an additional two years. The initial choice to replace Hoover, L. Patrick Gray, was nominated by Richard Nixon in February of 1973, but concerns arose over his partisanship, lack of independence from the White House, and poor handling of the Watergate investigation. Nixon withdrew his nomination two months later, and Gray, who was the acting director, promptly resigned.

It’s quite a contrast to the Patel confirmation, where, despite his rank partisanship, commitment to do the bidding of the White House, and rejection of any investigation into the events of January 6, all but two Republican senators voted to confirm him. Patel is not held in the high esteem that led to unanimous and near-unanimous votes on his predecessors’ confirmations. Even Chris Wray, Trump’s pick after he fired Jim Comey, was confirmed by a vote of 92-5. Comey lost only one vote among the senators for his confirmation. The six votes before that (two were for Mueller) were unanimous. Only one additional nominee, legendary Alabama civil rights Judge Frank M. Johnson, had his name withdrawn from consideration, due in his case to medical issues.

Patel is an election denier who comes to office with a published list of enemies he wants revenge against, although he maintained during the confirmation process that that wasn’t what it was. Apparently, Patel had some concerns that having an enemies list might be disqualifying for an FBI director. But no one should be deceived. This is, after all, Donald Trump’s pick for the job. Trump has never been shy about his demands for revenge against his enemies, posting “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” following his arraignment on federal charges over January 6.

As early as May of 2023, there was reporting that Trump intended to target prosecutors and agents involved in the special counsel’s investigation into him if he regained the White House. He had just been indicted in the classified documents case, but he was already focused on identifying and firing government employees who were doing their jobs. Rolling Stone reported, “In recent months, the former president has asked close advisers, including at least one of his personal attorneys, if ‘we know’ all the names of senior FBI agents and Justice Department personnel who have worked on the federal probes into him. That’s according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter and another person briefed on it.” (No word on whether that source was one of Trump’s personal attorneys who now works at DOJ.) But the point is, if the boss has a revenge list, there’s no reason to think his loyalist won’t execute on it and doesn’t have one of his own—especially when it’s in an appendix to his book.

If FBI agents who are just doing their jobs aren’t free of the risk of political prosecution, then who is? In a country run by a president who has accumulated all power into his own hands, you never know who might run afoul of the leader’s good graces. It could be the chef whose meal Trump doesn’t like. It could be the teacher who gives one of his grandchildren a B. It could be a Republican senator who votes against Trump’s budget plan, or his efforts to fire federal employees in their state, or efforts to end Medicare for their citizens. Really, it could be anyone.

Today, “EagleEdMartin,” the acting U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia revealed—a violation of DOJ policy—that he has opened investigations into statements made by New York Senator Chuck Schumer and California Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia because of clearly First-Amendment-protected statements that they made. Republicans would do well to consider that if baseless investigations are the order of the day, they too could come under fire if they fall out of line.

Now that we have a president who rejects a rule of law system of government, anyone could find themself beyond the due process protections the law gives us from unjust treatment. Only the courts and Congress can check the president, and they must be willing to do so. The Senate failed at that today when they confirmed Kash Patel.

Personal loyalty to the president, not the Constitution, isn’t how our country is supposed to work. Without adherence to the Constitution and our laws, we are the kind of country Americans criticize, the ones where people who have not committed any crimes are unjustly investigated and jailed for opposing the country’s leaders. Trump is now threatening to fundamentally change the structure of our country so that it runs in a way that serves him and not the people. Today, the Senate brought that closer to reality.

We’re in this together,

Joyce