FBI Director Kash Patel faced sharp questions from senators on Thursday over reports about his conduct and the politicization of law enforcement, then traded insults with Sen. Chris Van Hollen in a Senate subcommittee hearing that quickly veered from budget work into a public fight over credibility.
Van Hollen asked Patel, "Do you know that it is a crime to lie to Congress?" Patel replied, "I have not lied to Congress," and accused the senator of lying. Van Hollen shot back that "The director of the FBI apparently does not want to answer the question about whether or not it’s a crime to lie to Congress, and I find that extremely troubling," before telling him, "You are a disgrace, Mr. Director." Patel answered, "The only person that was slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gangbanging rapist was you."
The hearing came as senators pressed Patel on a series of recent reports that have dogged him for months. In mid-April, Sarah Fitzpatrick reported concerns inside the Trump administration about excessive drinking and unexplained absences. In a follow-up story, she reported on personalized bourbon bottles Patel has handed out as gifts. Patel has denied those allegations and sued Fitzpatrick and The Atlantic for defamation, seeking $250 million.
Last week, MS NOW reported that Fitzpatrick was the focus of an FBI criminal-leak investigation, a claim the bureau rejected as completely false. Earlier this spring, several outlets reported that Patel had fired agents from a task force monitoring threats from Iran just days before the Trump administration launched a war against Iran, saying those agents had been involved in an investigation into the president’s alleged removal of classified documents to Mar-a-Lago. Patel has denied those reports and said the agents were dismissed for unspecified violations of ethical obligations.
The subcommittee hearing also included the leaders of the Drug Enforcement Agency, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and it would otherwise have been a routine budget session. Instead, it became another test of how Patel is handling the country’s top federal law-enforcement post and whether the controversy surrounding him is now part of the job itself.
