Democratic senators accused FBI Director Kas Patel during a contentious hearing in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, of abusing his position as head of the federal police and, in particular, of intimidating journalists.
Patel categorically rejected these accusations, emphasizing that his record in the agency shows a decline in crime and and an intensified fight against drug trafficking and fraud.
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The FBI director and Democratic lawmakers exchanged fierce verbal attacks—often of a personal nature—during the marathon Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, lasting about 4.5 hours.
“You’re using your agency as a bully to go after journalists,” accused Cory Booker, a Democratic senator from New Jersey. “Journalists write something about the president, and your agency raids their homes and summons their mothers to appear in court.”
“A journalist writes something about you, and your agency puts their name on a file and starts an investigation,” he added.
Mr. Patel refuted these allegations, calling them “complete lies” and denying that he used FBI resources to target journalists.
In April, the FBI director filed a lawsuit seeking $250 million in damages against The Atlantic magazine and the author of an article he described as a “defamatory bombshell.”
In that article, Patel is accused, among other things, of drinking excessively and frequently—something that could cost him his position.
According to the MS Now television network, the FBI began conducting an “internal threats investigation” as a result of the magazine article.
After taking over as head of the federal police, Mr. Patel was also accused of purging agents whom he did not consider sufficiently loyal to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Among the agents he demoted or dismissed, several had worked on criminal cases involving the Republican billionaire after he left the White House in 2021.
When questioned about this by senators yesterday, Patel assured them that there were no “purges” and that most of the agents who left the agency did so voluntarily.
Source: Proto Thema
