At a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) and FBI Director Kash Patel had a tense exchange after the Pennsylvania Democrat said he likely committed perjury at an earlier hearing.
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00:00Thank you, Chairman Rogers, Ranking Member Meng, Chairman Cole, Ranking Member DeLauro.
00:05And thank you, Mr. Patel, for your testimony and for being here today.
00:10I've been looking at the President's 120-word FBI budget request, the so-called skinny, I'll call it, OSEMBIC request,
00:18that states that, quote, the undoing of the weaponization of the FBI is one of the administration's top priorities.
00:26The weaponization of the FBI is something that deeply concerns me.
00:31It should concern all of us.
00:34And yet, since taking office, President Trump has been on a revenge tour.
00:39He has targeted individuals, universities, law firms, with executive orders to cut them out or to make them come under his will.
00:48He has used ICE to disappear U.S. citizens without due process.
00:53And he's fully ignored a unanimous Supreme Court order and then over the weekend wasn't sure if he was obligated to uphold the Constitution of the United States.
01:05In your book, your recent book, Government Gangsters, you include an appendix with a list of names that people have referred to as an enemies list.
01:15Now, I know you will claim it's just an appendix, not an enemies list.
01:19So let's focus on how the President sees it, on what the President calls it.
01:25And you proudly display his quote on the front cover of your book.
01:29The President calls this a brilliant roadmap, a blueprint.
01:33And I have not even raised your storied children's book, The Plot Against the King.
01:39It concerns me how many people from this blueprint have been targeted with executive orders and FBI investigations.
01:48The FBI cannot be weaponized.
01:50And under your leadership, it has been nothing but a weapon alongside the President to go after the President's perceived opponents to stifle dissent and free speech.
02:00A few weeks ago, as we saw through a social media post that you quickly deleted, the FBI arrested a judge in Wisconsin for correctly asking ICE officials if they had a judicial warrant instead of an administrative warrant, which they did not have.
02:15Despite this judge following the law, on the morning of April the 25th, the FBI arrested the judge in an escalation of the weaponization of the FBI under your leadership.
02:27Let me be clear. A functioning democracy does not lock up judges.
02:34I am gravely concerned about the utter lack of independence of the FBI and its weaponization under your leadership.
02:42I am concerned that the President is using this book, your book, as a blueprint, as he has said.
02:49It's a blueprint for revenge.
02:51And I am concerned that your eagerness, a childlike giddiness to carry out the President's revenge tour, you've shown yourself to be unserious in your statements before you were sworn in and some after.
03:05You've shown yourself unfit to lead this important agency.
03:09I was an impeachment manager for President Trump's second impeachment.
03:14It was a sad, solemn duty.
03:17And so I wanted to ask you about that.
03:19Mr. Patel, as you and the President continue to weaponize and investigate his perceived enemies, as you follow this blueprint,
03:30when can I, a former impeachment manager, expect the FBI at my door?
03:35Ma'am, you want to know who was targeted by a weaponized FBI?
03:38Me.
03:40You want to know how and why?
03:41You want to know what I'm doing to fix it?
03:43Let me move on.
03:44Well, you should read the book because there's no enemies list on that book.
03:47There are people that violated their constitutional obligations and their duties to the American people,
03:52and they were rightly called out.
03:54And you should give that book to every one of your constituents so they can read about it.
03:57I won't be doing that.
03:59That's their loss.
04:00During your Senate confirmation hearings,
04:03you repeatedly denied having any involvement as a private citizen in the firing of FBI officials
04:08who engaged in the prosecution against January 6th insurrectionists,
04:12the violent rioters who beat and killed Capitol police officers,
04:16and whom you referred to as political prisoners.
04:20Since then, multiple whistleblowers have come forward,
04:23and we know that you likely committed perjury.
04:25At the same hearing, you claimed you were not familiar with Stu Peters,
04:29an anti-Semitic Holocaust denier,
04:33despite the fact that you appeared on Mr. Peters' podcast eight separate times.
04:38Eight times.
04:40And you claimed not to recall.
04:41Mr. Patel, my second question is,
04:43should we worry more about your memory or your veracity?
04:46We should worry more about your lack of candor.
04:49You're accusing me of committing perjury.
04:51Tell the American people how I broke the law and committed a felony.
04:54Have the audacity to actually put the facts forward instead of lying for political banter
05:00so you can have a 20-second donation hit.
05:03The answer is both.
05:05The answer is you're failing, not me.
05:09Go ahead.
05:16Mr. Patel, I believe that the members of the FBI,
05:21I know many of them, many retired, 38,000 people, as you say, it's a little less than that now,
05:27deserve the very best, deserve extraordinary independence,
05:33deserve freedom from the fears of being investigated,
05:36the freedom of coming forward to make sure they're doing their job.
05:39And I'll end with this, that I think it's interesting that in your proposal today,
05:45you find yourself at a gulf of difference between you and the president.
05:49I wonder how you will resolve that.
05:52Will you go to the president and say, we need $11.2 billion,
05:56not what you cut out of here?
05:58You're asking for more than a billion dollars than the president's request.
06:03Are you going to go to the president and straighten out that gulf?
06:07I'll do what I've always done and represent the American people,
06:10defend this country, and make sure the Constitution is always upheld
06:13and the FBI is never weaponized.
06:15Maybe you should do the same.
06:16So you agree with the president when he says he doesn't know
06:20if he should uphold his constitutional duty?
06:23If you want to just keep putting words in my mouth,
06:25the TV cameras are outside.
06:27I thank you.
06:28I yield back.
06:28Again, this is an unserious moment, sadly, for the FBI.
06:33I yield back.
06:34More so for you.
06:35Mr. Strang.
06:36Thanks, guys.