Pressed by Democratic US Senator Richard Blumenthal to commit not to fire FBI agents who worked on investigations into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents and attempts to overturn the 2020 election, Patel said “all FBI employees will be protected against political retribution”.
The acting attorney general, who oversees the FBI, on Monday fired more than a dozen lawyers who worked on the Trump cases, citing a lack of trust that they could carry out Trump’s agenda.
Democrats pressed Patel during his confirmation hearing about his past comments downplaying the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and threatening investigations of government officials and the news media. Patel did not directly address past remarks, but told the Senate Judiciary Committee “any accusations levelled against me that I would somehow put political bias before the Constitution are grotesquely unfair”.
Patel, a conservative firebrand, has been among the most vocal critics of investigations into Trump, depicting them as the work of a “deep state” on law enforcement and intelligence officials bent on undermining the president.
