The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 along party lines Thursday to recommend Kash Patel's nomination to serve as FBI director. Why it matters: The vote moves Patel a critical step closer to being confirmed to a role that's set to take on even more importance given President Trump's early focus on expanding the powers of law enforcement. Democrats predicted Patel would prove to be a Trump loyalist who would politicize the FBI.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines on Thursday to advance the nomination of Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s pick for FBI director, pushing past Democratic concerns that he would operate as a loyalist for the president and target perceived adversaries of the White House. The committee voted 12-10 to send the nomination to the Republican-controlled Senate for full consideration. It was not immediately clear when the final confirmation vote will occur, but so far even nominees once seen as having uncertain prospects — including new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence — have been able to marshal sufficient support from Republicans eager to fall in line with Trump’s agenda.
Committee members voted 12-to-10 Thursday to advance Patel to the full floor vote, which could come before the chamber as early as next week. The vote comes after Democrats had successfully delayed Patel's committee vote by seven days last week, in an effort to force the Trump nominee to testify a second time. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa., said attempts by Judiciary ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and others to force Patel to testify again were "baseless" as he already sat before the committee for more than five hours and disclosed "thousands of pages" of records to the panel, as well as nearly 150 pages of responses to lawmakers' written questions.
