Washington, D.C. (January 30, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, released the following statement rebuking President Donald Trump’s dangerous pick to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel, after his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee only further proved that he is staggeringly unfit to lead the nation’s premier law enforcement agency.
“Kash Patel’s unrepentant enthusiasm for violent J6 insurrectionists, his cartoon comic books about how ‘Hillary Queenton’ ‘spread lies’ to stop King Donald from becoming our King, and his comically evasive and petulant answers to Members of the Senate refusing to acknowledge plain facts about his own statements, now tell us everything we need to know. This political operative’s wavering commitment to the rule of law and spectacular disrespect for the truth disqualify him as a candidate to lead the nation’s premier law enforcement organization. He is a dangerous and cartoonish choice for the job.
“Trump nominated Patel to serve as FBI Director only for his unflinching subservience and sycophancy. He knew Patel would carry out his agenda of unhinged retribution and vengeance without regard to the rule of law and the Constitution.
"Kash Patel vilifies the free press and threatens to ‘come after’ reporters. He publishes a list of so-called Deep State officials targeted for retribution. He fans the flames of conspiracy theories, and acts as an eager mouthpiece for Russian propaganda against President Joe Biden by pushing the thoroughly debunked FD-1023 form. He touts the dangerous and baseless theory that the FBI planned the January 6 insurrection on the Capitol, as if they planned the attack on themselves, and refers to violent rioters who assaulted law enforcement as ‘political prisoners’ like Nelson Mandela or Alexei Navalny. He embraces fringe groups like QAnon, which the FBI has linked to violent domestic extremism. His nonprofit, which purports to support criminals charged for their participation in the January 6 attack, has itself been credibly accused of self-dealing. Republican appointees who worked aside Kash Patel have balked at the idea of him leading the FBI, and even Trump conceded that Kash Patel is ‘kind of crazy.’
“Kash Patel’s agenda is to reshape our nation’s premier law enforcement agency into a tool for Trump to wield against his rivals and silence dissent.
“The American people need an FBI Director motivated by duty to the people and the rule of law, not political grievance and fantasies of revenge and retribution. Kash Patel lacks the experience, temperament and understanding needed to lead the Bureau. I urge the Senate to reject this shocking nomination.”
The evidence disqualifying Kash Patel from leading the FBI is irrefutable:
New York Times: Patel’s Loyalty to Trump Raises Doubts Over F.B.I.’s Independence
“Mr. Patel’s embrace of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories and unflinching fealty are the coin of the realm in Mr. Trump’s orbit. But in the view of his many critics (and even some who publicly sing his praises), Mr. Patel’s oft-stated loyalty to the president poses one of the most significant challenges to the independence of the F.B.I. in the century since J. Edgar Hoover…”
Washington Post: Kash Patel has vowed retribution. As FBI director, he could do it.
“‘The idea that he is going to become the FBI director is appalling,’ said Charles Kupperman, who was deputy national security adviser in the previous Trump White House while Patel worked as an aide to the National Security Council. ‘His legal career is modest at best. His ideas are ludicrous.’”
CNN: “The list […] appears as an appendix at the end of Patel’s 2023 book, ‘Government Gangsters.’ It names more than 50 current or former US officials that he claims are ‘members of the Executive Branch deep state,’ which he describes as a ‘dangerous threat to democracy.’”
Washington Post: Kash Patel has an enemies list centered on grievance
“Patel’s list was delineated in his 2023 book, ‘Government Gangsters,’ a screed that mirrors Patel’s children’s book series ‘The Plot Against the King’ (the eponymous king being Trump) in casting anti-Trump and anti-Patel forces as wrong or evil or both. Trump gave ‘Gangsters’ his blessing, calling it a ‘brilliant roadmap highlighting every corrupt actor’ that would be used to ‘help us take back the White House and remove these Gangsters from all of Government.’”
Associated Press: Music to Trump’s ears: Whitewashing Jan. 6 riot with song
“Experts on extremism and propaganda say the song is another example of how Trump and his most ardent allies are trying to gloss over an avalanche of evidence proving the Capitol riot was anything but an act of patriotic resistance. […] ‘Buh Bye Miley, Taylor, Rihanna, and all the rest who spent Millions trying for the coveted Number 1 spot,’ one of the producers, Kash Patel, wrote […].”
MSNBC: Kash Patel once said he would 'come after' journalists. It now hangs over his FBI candidacy.
“‘We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media,’ Patel told Steve Bannon on his podcast in 2023. ‘Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminal or civilly, we’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice.’”
The Economist: “Mr. Patel has insinuated that the FBI had a hand in the [January 6] insurrection.”
Mother Jones: “[Patel] praised QAnon, saying, ‘There’s a lot of good to a lot of it,’ and he agreed with a host who said Q had ‘been so right on so many things.’ Patel praised Q for starting a ‘movement.’”
The Guardian: ‘Cynical cash grab’: FBI chief nominee Kash Patel’s profitable links in the non-profit world
“The Kash Foundation has not specified or identified any of the beneficiaries of its charitable activities, and new information has prompted deepening questions about how Patel and those around him may be deriving private benefits from the organization.”
