This is going to be a difficult week for FBI Director Kash Patel.
It was always going to be. Patel has been slated for days to appear before both the House and Senate judiciary committees, where he was sure to be peppered with questions about his leadership of the investigative force, his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein saga and allegations that the FBI fired people over their political preferences.
But then Patel made public missteps during his response to the killing of Charlie Kirk, like claiming the FBI had caught the alleged Kirk shooter before having to walk back that claim publicly. Patel’s leadership drew fierce blowback from the conservative base that helped make Patel into a prominent figure on the right in the first place, with some well-known conservatives openly questioning his competence.
And it has given lawmakers yet another topic to grill the director on before cameras. With everything lawmakers want to now interrogate him on, the pressure on Patel heading into these events is sure to be immense.
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Patel has defended his handling of the Kirk investigation, even while acknowledging issues. “Could I have worded it a little better in the heat of the moment? Sure,” Patel told Fox News on Monday morning when asked about his initial messaging about the search for the shooter. “But do I regret putting it out? Absolutely not.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (Illinois), the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, invoked Patel’s error in a speech on the Senate floor previewing the director’s visit to the committee, drawing a line between the way the Republican has fired experienced agents seen as insufficiently loyal to Trump and the investigation of Kirk’s shooting.
“This hollowing out of the FBI creates a danger to the security of this country,” Durbin said, arguing that Patel has cost the FBI “decades of institutional knowledge,” all of which he said he plans to press the director on Tuesday.
The Washington Post’s Perry Stein and Jeremy Roebuck reported in the wake of the Kirk killing that within the FBI, “multiple people said the Kirk investigation has highlighted Patel’s inexperience and minimal knowledge of how the vast law enforcement bureau operates,” leading to low morale. They reported that current and former officials said Patel was “crumbling under pressure” and accused him of being “more interested in his image within right-wing circles on social media” than the operations of the agency.
Patel will first appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday. Democrats have spent recent days strategizing on what to ask Patel and which Democratic lawmaker is best positioned to ask specific questions, according to a person close to the hearing preparations. That person added that there is a belief among these Democrats that Patel has a lot on the line in his appearances, citing a Fox News report that many inside the Trump administration, including the U.S. attorney general, have lost faith in the FBI director.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) previewed that he planned to ask Patel about his pledge for “no politicization at the FBI” or “retributive actions taken” against agents.
“That was a lie,” Schiff said in a Twitter video. “So, there is a lot for him to answer to when he comes to testify.”
The wild card in the hearing Tuesday will be the Republicans. If they choose to press Patel on the Kirk investigation, following the lead of MAGA influencers online, things could get dicey for the director. If they focus on other topics, it could be a smoother day for Patel.
In excerpts from his opening statement, the committee chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), mentions the Kirk killing. Still, the bulk of his time will be spent on the FBI arresting criminals, assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the “disgraceful partisan weaponization by federal law enforcement” under previous leaders.
“Today, you’ll get a lot of grief from some members of this committee,” Grassley plans to say. “But, in the short amount of time you’ve been Director, you’ve corrected whistleblower retaliation and increased transparency more than any other FBI Director I’ve seen, and I’ve been around here more than anyone else on this committee.”
After speaking with the Senate, Patel will head to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (Maryland), the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent Patel a letter last week demanding a series of documents on how the FBI director “suppressed evidence of ties between President Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.”
“Who exactly are you protecting by refusing to release the Epstein files?” Raskin asked in his letter, noting that in 2023 Patel said the bureau was suppressing the names on the Epstein client list because of who was on the list. “Now that you are the Director of the FBI, you know precisely who is implicated in the Epstein files, yet you refuse to release them. Who are you protecting and why?”
This is where the pressure Patel is feeling on Kirk meets the pressure Republicans writ large are feeling on Epstein, creating a conundrum for the director. The Epstein saga, and reports about Trump’s former friendship with Epstein – a friendship Trump said he terminated about 20 years ago – has been a story that the White House has been unable to shake for months. That’s largely because Republican leaders have promised Trump’s base for years that if they were to win power, they would deliver answers about Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in 2019.
Patel will now be the latest Trump official, before cameras and in an environment that is known to create made-for-TV moments, to be forced to answer pointed questions on Epstein. His answers on that topic, and on the Kirk shooting, could either reinforce or reshape growing questions about his competence as FBI director.