Chairman Grassley Voices Support for Patel as Full Senate Moves ...

Floor Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa

Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee

“Motion to Proceed to Kash Patel’s Nomination to be Director of the FBI”

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

VIDEO

Today we’re going to take a procedural vote on Kash Patel’s nomination to be the Director of the FBI. 

I want to take a few minutes to express my support for his nomination and to urge my Democratic colleagues to consider voting for [his confirmation].

Mr. Patel’s resume doesn’t look like a normal one for an FBI Director. But everybody knows in this Congress – and maybe in the United States – that we aren’t living in normal times. 

As I’ve exposed through my oversight work, the FBI has been infected by politicization, and this storied agency has been weaponized against political opponents.

Mr. Patel’s the right man at the right time. His career has been a study in fighting for unpopular but righteous causes, exposing corruption and putting America first.

Mr. Patel’s served as a public defender, a counterterrorism prosecutor under President Obama and a House staffer. 

In the House, he worked to expose Crossfire Hurricane as a political hit job that was based on discredited information paid for – would you believe it – by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Campaign.

After exposing the Russia-gate scandal in Congress, Mr. Patel then went on to serve as Senior Director of Counterterrorism at the National Security Council, Deputy Director of National Intelligence and Chief of Staff to the Acting Secretary of Defense. 

He’s fought for transparency and accountability in the government. I’ve fought for this in Congress for decades.

That’s the right approach, because everybody knows that more transparency in government brings accountability [to] those of us serving in the government. 

In other words, the public’s business should be public.

Because of his efforts in exposing corruption, Mr. Patel has been relentlessly attacked, as we’ve seen over the last two months. 

These smears began long before his confirmation hearing. I understand why he’s been targeted this way. 

He [poses] a threat to the existing system – a system that has retaliated against whistleblowers, engaged in unprecedented lawfare against the President and the American people and obstructed congressional oversight. 

Mr. Patel will end these abuses. He will restore the FBI to its essential mission of keeping Americans safe.

Mr. Patel’s vision for a new FBI is why he’s been endorsed by organizations representing more than 680,000 law enforcements officers, and by dozens of former and current FBI agents, state attorneys general and U.S. attorneys. 

They trust Mr. Patel and we should as well. I urge all of my colleagues to support Mr. Patel’s nomination.

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