The main Democrat of the Judicial Committee of the Senate has sent a letter to the Inspector General of the Department of Justice that accused Kash Patel, the election of President Trump for the director of the FBI, to secretly orchestrate the layoffs of FBI officials, a day later to tell the committee under oath that he was not aware of any plan to do so.
“If these accusations are true, Mr. Patel may have perjected before the Judicial Committee of the Senate,” Senator Dick Durbin wrote.
Durbin said he has talked to the complainants who told him that Patel has been transmitting instructions to the White House personnel for the policy Stephen Miller, who later transmitted Patel’s instructions to the Interim Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.
“I have received highly credible information from multiple sources that Kash Patel has been personally directing the current purge of public career officials in the Federal Research Office,” Durbin wrote in the Charter. “Although Mr. Patel is President Trump’s candidate to be director of the FBI, he is still a private citizen without any role in government.”
Durbin, whose letter was first reported by the New York Times, described a meeting the day before the Patel Confirmation Hearing in which Bove said that Patel and Miller were pressing for shooting at the FBI, as had already happened in the Department of Justice.
“Contemporary notes of that morning meeting said: ‘KP wants movement in the FBI, reciprocal actions for the Department of Justice,” Durbin wrote, an apparent reference to Patel’s initials.
In a publication on social networks, Erika Knight, patel spokesman, did not directly approach Durbin’s letter, but denounced what she described as a “false narrative.”
“Kash Patel is a highly qualified national security expert who has been completely transparent with the American people throughout this process and has demonstrated the necessary integrity and leadership for this role,” he wrote. “The Senate should confirm it without delay.”
Durbin said that, during Patel’s confirmation hearing on January 30, Senator Corey Booker, Dn.J., asked Patel if he was “aware of any plan or discussion to punish in some way, including the termination, FBI agents or Trump investigations associated?
Patel replied that “I wasn’t aware of that.” Patel then added: “I don’t know what is happening right now, but I am committed to you, the senator and his colleagues that I will honor the FBI internal review process.”
Patel also declared at the audience: “All FBI employees will be protected against political compensation.”
The next day, the interim director of the FBI, Brian Driscoll, sent a memorandum to the entire FBI workforce by saying that Bove had ordered him to withdraw eight high -ranking executives from the FBI, who previously worked as Trump’s defense lawyer. Driscoll also said they told him to deliver the names of each FBI employee involved in the investigation of January 6, a number that is believed to be thousands.
Driscoll rejected an order from the Department of Justice to help in the dismissal of agents involved in the riot cases of January 6, retreating with such force that some FBI officials feared that he was fired, NBC News told NBC News.
Continuous fears of mass gunners
The Trump administration has also asked the field offices and the FBI headquarters to justify the continuous employment of 3,600 office employees, approximately 10% of the FBI workforce, which recently joined the office and, as a result They are in a state of trial.
The FBI agents association, a group that represents agents but is not a union, said that special probation agents have already suffered wide training at the FBI Academy in Quantico. They say that agents are already working on active investigations and that mass layoffs could interrupt them.
In an interview with NBC News on Tuesday, Natalie Bara, president of the FBI agents Association, said it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to train an agent, from its initial application to its Quantico graduation.
Bara said the office needs to add 800 to 1,000 special agents every year to replace Special agents retreats, so massive shots would affect the office for years.
“It makes no sense to turn around and shoot or fire agents who have already gone through this process,” Bara said.
The Senate Judicial Committee is programmed to vote on Patel nomination on Thursday. It is not clear if Durbin’s perjury claim will have an impact on the Republican senators, who so far have Patel defended evenly.
If your nomination is approved by the Committee, the complete Senate will vote on whether it will confirm Patel to a period of 10 years as director of the FBI.
