Democratic lawmakers tell FBI director: You are a thug
Washington – Agencies: Democratic members of the U.S. Senate accused FBI Director Kash Patel of abusing his authority to intimidate journalists during a hearing before the Judiciary Committee yesterday. During the session, which lasted more than four hours, Patel praised his agency’s performance in reducing crime rates and combating drug trafficking and fraud, while denying the allegations leveled against him. However, Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, accused Patel of using the agency to pursue journalists, describing him as a “thug.” Booker stated, “Journalists wrote about the President, and employees from your office went to their homes and summoned their mothers. A journalist wrote about you, and your office searched her records and opened an investigation into her.”
For his part, Dick Durbin, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, described Kash Patel as the least qualified and most partisan FBI director in the agency’s history. He said Patel had turned the FBI into a tool against President Donald Trump’s political opponents and a shield to protect the President and his loyalists.
Patel, however, rejected the accusations, calling them “false,” and affirmed that he had not used FBI resources to target journalists.
Earlier, in April, the FBI Director filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Atlantic magazine and the author of an article that described him as “disgraceful.” The article accused Patel of excessive alcohol consumption and stated that he was at risk of losing his position. According to MS Now news channel, the FBI opened an internal investigation into the leak of information related to the magazine’s article.
In response to questions from Judiciary Committee members regarding the wave of resignations within the agency, Patel said, “There has been no purge,” adding that the overwhelming majority of agents who left the FBI did so through voluntary retirement.
Since taking over the agency, Patel has been accused of launching a campaign to remove employees perceived as not loyal to President Donald Trump.
