By Steve Neavling
Kash Patel, President Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, pledged Thursday to shield the bureau’s employees from “political retribution,” even as the Trump administration has begun purging Justice Department officials involved in investigations targeting the president.
His assurances came under intense scrutiny during a Senate confirmation hearing, where Democratic lawmakers questioned Patel’s commitment to impartiality, Reuters reports. Pressed by Sen. Richard Blumenthal to guarantee that FBI agents who worked on probes into Trump’s handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election would not be fired, Patel responded, “All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution.”
Despite Patel’s promise, the administration has already taken aggressive steps to remove officials linked to cases against Trump. On Monday, the acting attorney general dismissed more than a dozen Justice Department lawyers who had worked on Trump-related prosecutions, citing a lack of trust in their ability to advance the president’s agenda.
Patel insisted he played no role in those firings and assured lawmakers that he would follow the FBI’s established policies for disciplining employees. However, Democrats remained skeptical, highlighting his past rhetoric about the so-called “deep state” and his history of downplaying the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
A longtime Trump loyalist and vocal critic of investigations into the former president, Patel has repeatedly portrayed probes into Trump as politically motivated efforts by intelligence and law enforcement officials. His past statements raised concerns among Senate Democrats that he would prioritize loyalty to Trump over the FBI’s independence.
When questioned about his stance on Trump’s sweeping pardons for nearly 1,600 individuals charged in connection with the Capitol riot, including hundreds convicted of assaulting police officers, Patel appeared to break with the former president.
“I have always rejected any violence against law enforcement,” he said. “I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual that committed violence against law enforcement.”
Patel also sought to reassure lawmakers that FBI investigations under his leadership would be guided strictly by legal and factual standards. He dismissed accusations that he would inject politics into law enforcement, calling such claims “grotesquely unfair.”
