Donald Trump announced his intention to cut short the term of FBI Director Christopher Wray and select Kash Patel to lead an agency the president-elect often criticized on the campaign trail.
The pick would be another high-profile test for Senate Republicans, who would be tasked with deciding whether to confirm Patel, a former Trump administration official who has pledged to identify “conspirators” in the government.
Patel is likely to receive scrutiny during his confirmation process for past comments, such as plans to “come after” members of the media.
“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 criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice,” Patel said last year on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.
Several GOP senators praised the pick, including Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who’s likely to be chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the new year.
“Chris Wray has failed at fundamental duties of FBI Dir He’s showed disdain for cong oversight & hasn’t lived up to his promises It’s time 2 chart a new course 4 TRANSPARENCY +ACCOUNTABILITY at FBI,” Grassley posted on the social platform X. “Kash Patel must prove to Congress he will reform &restore public trust in FBI.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., in an interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said Patel “represents the type of change that we need to see in the FBI.”
Meanwhile Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, described Patel as a “very strong nominee” and projected confidence that he would be confirmed.
“All of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, all of the people pulling their hair out, are exactly the people who are dismayed about having a real reformer come into the FBI and clean out the corrupted partisans who sadly have burrowed into senior career positions at the FBI,” Cruz said Sunday during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., the current Judiciary Committee chairman, pointed out in a statement that Wray’s term does not expire until 2027, and Trump knows this “because he nominated Director Wray in 2017 after he fired the previous Director, James Comey, another lifelong Republican who failed Trump’s loyalty test.”
“President Biden kept Director Wray in office because the FBI is supposed to be insulated from partisanship. Now, the President-elect wants to replace his own appointee with an unqualified loyalist,” Durbin said. “The Senate should reject this unprecedented effort to weaponize the FBI for the campaign of retribution that Donald Trump has promised.”
Cruz predicted that Wray will either resign or Trump will fire him. “It’s no secret to anybody, including Chris Wray, that he is not going to continue to serve as the head of the FBI under Donald Trump,” Cruz said.
Meanwhile, Wray has shown no public signs of resigning. The FBI, in a statement on Saturday, did not indicate if Wray would resign.
“Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats,” the FBI said. “Director Wray’s focus remains on the men and women of the FBI, the people we do the work with, and the people we do the work for.”
Trump praised Patel in an announcement posted on Truth Social, saying he was a “brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.”
The president-elect wrote that Patel “played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”
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