WASHINGTON – Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., highlighted the FBI’s campus at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville and applauded director nominee Kash Patel’s vision for the bureau during a hearing Thursday.
Britt started off her time during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing explaining a plethora of positive statements she heard from Patel on how he would tackle the FBI director role throughout the other senators’ questioning.
“You said our law enforcement officers deserve the very best,” Britt said. “You said you know and you will not allow there to be victims of government overreach because it has happened to you.”
Patel is a lawyer who worked at the Department of Justice and in other national security jobs. He is a fierce Trump ally. He also had what critics call an ‘enemies list’ of now former government officials to target in his 2023 book. Patel called that list a “mischaracterization” during the hearing.
Much of the Democrats questioning before Britt’s time focused on his past comments on retribution, praising Jan. 6, 2021 rioters and his comments that he would go after journalists.
Britt asked Patel to describe his plans for making America safe.
Patel said his two themes for managing the FBI would be to “let good cops be cops” and to “restore the trust in the FBI.”
The senator used her second round of questions to focus on the FBI’s presence in Huntsville and the more than 2,000 FBI employees who work at the Redstone Arsenal campus.
“There has been over $4 billion invested there,” Britt said. “It is truly remarkable the training that is going on there.”
Patel told Britt he is committed to visiting those facilities in Huntsville.
“This is a great example… of the FBI’s capabilities and infrastructure systems around the country that already exist to the tune of billions,” Patel said.
Britt also said she wanted to ensure the funding for training remained a high priority for the FBI. Patel said he would commit to high standards at the agency.
Patel’s exchanges with Democrats on the committee got contentious.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-HI, grilled Patel on whether he would go after former federal government officials, such as former FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Patel would only say that he had “no plans in going backwards.”
Hirono pressed Patel on whether Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and he said, “President Biden’s election was certified.”
Patel did distance himself from Trump’s pardons of Jan. 6 rioters when he told Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, he did not “agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement.”
A committee vote for Patel has not been scheduled yet. After the committee votes, his nomination will go to the full Senate.