Durbin Delivers Opening Statement During Senate Judiciary Committee Executive Meeting On Kash Patel's Nomination To Be FBI Director
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today delivered an opening statement during a Senate Judiciary Committee executive business meeting regarding the nomination of Kash Patel, President Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Judiciary Democrats held Mr. Patel’s nomination over for one week per Committee rules.
Key Quotes:
“This is an extraordinary nomination—the Kash Patel nomination… There are several things we have to acknowledge. Number one—this is an unusual nomination. Unusual in [that] it is a ten-year nomination. We decided 50 years ago to reform the selection of the FBI head to make sure we took politics out of the equation. Ten years is a pretty long time, and I think it merits extra consideration and review. Secondly, the hearing of this individual raised questions I’m sure a lot of people were surprised about. Why did we spend so much time talking about a musical recording [called the] J6 choir? We did because Mr. Patel basically denied any knowledge of the creation of this musical enterprise and the people who were involved in it. He was very proud of the musical selection, which he was playing at rallies for President Trump. He was very much involved in calling these folks ‘political prisoners’ who stormed the Capitol on January 6. And yet when we asked him about them, he denied he had any real knowledge of who was involved.”
“He was on Steve Bannon’s show. [During his hearing,] Mr. Patel claimed he did not have anything to do with the January 6 prison choir, which includes January 6 rioters who violently assaulted police officers. [But] here is what he said to Steven Bannon, ‘we had this idea to record the January 6 [rioters] who recite the national anthem every night from the D.C. prison. We took it to the studio and mastered and digitized it.’ That’s a direct contradiction under oath of his involvement. What difference does it make? The recording was of political prisoners who stormed this Capitol and assaulted 140 of our best and brightest and most well-trained people who guard us every single day—the Capitol Police and their D.C. counterparts… I hope we don’t fall into this trap of trying to rewrite history as to what happened on January 6.”
“There are some here [on the Committee] who when we went through this hearing, they disparaged the thought that these people [the insurrectionists] would be pardoned if they were guilty of violence against the police. One of my colleagues called it ‘absurd’ and ‘hypothetical.’ It turned out not to be so absurd when Donald Trump issued a blanket pardon to all those who had been arrested. Mr. Patel was part of this lionization of these thugs who took over the Capitol on that day. I don’t want history to be wrong or misleading about what actually happened.”
“Questionnaires are going out to the Department of Justice and FBI as to whether the individuals serving those agencies were involved in the January 6 prosecutions. If this is an effort to punish them, dismiss them, or treat them poorly because they did what they were supposed to do as professionals, that’s wrong. And I look at the involvement of Kash Patel in this whole episode from start to finish. I read his book, start to finish. I can tell you he does not have the temperament for the job. If you are honest about it, you will join me in thinking that. He’s always trying to go after those who disrespected him and wronged him politically and get even with them. For God’s sake, to give the most sweeping investigative agency in the United States over to this man to settle political scores. That’s why we asked for a second hearing on this. I hope some members on the Republican side will think twice on this issue.”
Video of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s opening statement is available here for TV Stations.
Earlier this week, Durbin led all Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats in a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) regarding Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Senators’ letter urges Chairman Grassley to:
- Schedule an additional hearing for Mr. Patel to answer questions under oath about the recent removals and reassignments of FBI career civil servants; Mr. Patel’s misleading testimony at his first hearing; and Mr. Patel’s testimony in President Trump’s classified documents case.
- Join Democrats in a bipartisan request to the Department of Justice (DOJ) asking DOJ to provide any and all sections of Volume Two of the “Final Report of the Special Counsel’s Investigations and Prosecutions” that refer or pertain to Mr. Patel’s testimony or actions; and
- Delay Mr. Patel’s nomination until the Committee has had sufficient time to review the requested materials on a bipartisan basis.
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