The most poignant moment of Kash Patel’s hearing on Thursday, as Trump’s FBI Director nominee, was his response to Senator Welch (D-VT). Having waded through the thoroughly boring Democrat tropes referencing January 6th, and the laboriously repeated question absolutely no one cares about—does Patel believe Trump actually lost the 2020 election?—he deftly exploited a subtle opening in Welch’s line of questioning. He responded with a statement pregnant with common sense, “That’s why I think its time, for the first time in this country’s history, that a public defender be the next director of the FBI, because no one knows more about constitutional due process than PDs.”
For the Democrat party, the ghost of Liz Cheney still haunts their nocturnal fantasies with the siren song of insurrection. In response to the incessant Democrat caterwauling, America simply yawned, preferring the message of Make America Great Again. But, people like Welch just don’t get it.
Since the directorship of Louis Freeh, FBI directors have been selected from what many brick agents would describe as the “empty suit” club. From Muller, to Comey, to Wray, the director’s office has been occupied by people drawn from the bureaucratic establishment. All of them known entities with all the right pedigrees, resumes approved by fellow bureaucrats and beholden to the administrative state. The result has been an FBI more oriented toward the interests of the state than the civil liberties of the American people. But, with Patel, we see a distinct departure from that statist culture.
Kash Patel has a list of credentials that easily qualify him for the office of FBI Director. He served as Chief of Staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, as Deputy Assistant to President Donald J. Trump, and Senior director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council, where he played a critical role in eliminating top terrorism leaders and recovering American hostages. He served as Principal Deputy to the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Most famously, Patel was the National Security Advisor to the House Intelligence Committee, and headed the only substantive investigation into the spurious Russiagate matter. He was a DOJ terrorism prosecutor, and started his career as a public defender (PD). Patel holds a law degree from the University College of London (with a certificate in International Law), and a bachelor’s from the University of Richmond.
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Furthermore, Patel has been endorsed by over fifty retired FBI Agents and analysts represented by Reform the Bureau, led by retired FBI Agent Richard Stout. The letter of endorsement, of which I’m a signatory, reads in part, “Never has the FBI faced such an urgent and compelling need for comprehensive reform as it does today. Mr. Patel has proven he possesses the breadth of experience required to address these challenges. His leadership, expertise, and vision make him uniquely qualified to guide the FBI through this pivotal moment. For these reasons, we stand in full support of Kash Patel’s nomination.” During the hearing, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) entered the letter into the congressional record.
Beyond the credentials, professional accolades, and endorsements, Patel’s time as a PD may give the clearest indication of what makes him tick. PDs represent some of the most vulnerable people within the justice system. They are criminal defendants without the means of retaining private representation. Quite simply, the job of the PD is to ensure that the criminal defendant’s civil liberties are preserved, that the defendant’s due process rights are enforced, and that America’s jurisprudential maxim is honored—innocent until proven guilty.
Patel will bring the spirit of the noble PD with him, and right wrongs with prudence informed by notions of due process. The scalpel must be employed with a judiciousness in order to assure transparency, accountability, and a restoration of an impartial professionalism at the FBI, without diminishing the necessary functions of national security. Patel’s experience suits him to this task.
In an age of government weaponization, where Democrat statists have adopted Lavrenity Beria’s slogan, “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime,” Patel’s provenance as a PD puts him in direct opposition to the sentiments of Stalin’s longest-serving secret police chief. Democrats have found much in common with Beria beyond his infamous slogan. In 1953, he supervised the expansion of the gulags, not unlike the Democrat vendetta against J6 defendants and other political opponents. Later, he was executed by Nikita Khrushchev for treason, a not unreasonable parallel to the political execution just exacted on the Democrat party by the American people.
Patel rose to the challenge of the senatorial gauntlet. He assured Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) that he wouldn’t burn the agency down, but lift up the good men and women of the FBI. Patel promised what America wants most from its premier federal law enforcement agency: accountability, a return to the primacy of the constitution, and letting the good cops be cops. He danced past the silly rhetoric of Democrats desperate to make Russiagate relevant, when we’ve already been “unburdened by what has been.”
Another pivotal moment in Patel’s hearing arrived when responding to Senator Katie Britt (R-AL). Patel said, “The men and women of the FBI do the most courageous work on God’s green earth…You can say whatever you want about me, bring it on, but you will not denigrate the men and women of the FBI that have saved this country.” In his Wall Street Journal opinion piece published the day before the hearing, Patel said of the diminished FBI he will almost assuredly lead, “We’ve also seen the FBI at its best. Recently in Oklahoma, agents foiled a planned ISIS attack, and in Colleyville, Texas, they courageously neutralized a terrorist holding synagogue congregants hostage. These examples showcase the FBI’s capacity to protect Americans and underscore why restoring public confidence in the bureau is critical.”
Kash Patel will certainly be the most pivotal FBI Director since J. Edgar Hoover, and will face challenges of a similar magnitude. And, like Hoover, Patel is a force for change.
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