Patel camp decries Durbin accusations as ‘politically motivated’ attempt to derail FBI confirmation

FIRST ON FOX: A team member for President Donald Trump’s FBI director nominee, Kash Patel, pushed back Wednesday on allegations that Patel played a role in the firings of bureau personnel just hours after swearing not to do so during his confirmation hearing late last month – dismissing accusations from the panel’s top Democrat as a politically motivated effort to derail his confirmation. 

A senior transition team official for Patel refuted the allegations made by the ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat, Dick Durbin, that Patel had orchestrated the firings after his confirmation hearing. 

This person told Fox News that Patel had left Washington the night of his confirmation hearing to fly home to Las Vegas, where he has “been sitting there waiting for the process to play out.”

The official also refuted the notion that Patel has had anything to do with the firings of bureau personnel, as alleged by Durbin in Senate floor remarks the previous day. 

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“Mr. Patel has been going through the confirmation process, and everything he has done since his nomination has been above board,” the official said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “And any insinuation otherwise is false.”

In addition to his trip home to Vegas, Patel has also spent time hunting away from Washington, this person said, providing photographed evidence of Patel’s activities. 

The news comes one day after Durbin’s team cited “highly credible” whistleblower reports his office had received in recent days, which they said indicated that Patel had been “personally directing the ongoing purge of FBI employees prior to his Senate confirmation for the role.”

Durbin’s staff also sent a letter Tuesday to the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, requesting an investigation into these allegations. 

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“I have received highly credible information from multiple sources that Kash Patel has been personally directing the ongoing purge of career civil servants at the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Durbin said in the letter to Horowitz. 

“Although Mr. Patel is President Trump’s nominee to be FBI Director, he is still a private citizen with no role in government.”

If true, Durbin has alleged that Patel’s reported actions could put him on the hook for perjury. 

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Patel claimed during his Senate confirmation hearing late last month that he would use his role to protect agents against efforts to weaponize the bureau. 

“All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution,” Patel told Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., during that hearing. 

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have sought to discredit Patel’s confirmation in the days and weeks ahead of his confirmation – which they reiterated last week in a press conference, after announcing they would delay his committee confirmation vote by a full week. 

Durbin told Fox News last week that their aim in delaying the hearing is to raise more public awareness about Patel’s previous actions, in hopes that doing so will shore up new opposition from some Republicans in the chamber.

Ultimately, lawmakers noted they can only delay Patel’s committee vote through next week. Beyond that, they said, it is up to Republicans.