Kash Patel Testifies Before Congress on Charlie Kirk Assassination and FBI Reform Efforts Under Trump

Cash Patel is expected to testify before Congress very soon and so uh we'll be going live with you this morning. We have it pulled up and we are currently waiting. But in the meantime, of course, we can go over some of the latest news, theories, conspiracies, and and so much more about what we're currently seeing with the Charlie Kirk assassination case and the breaking news around it. There's of course a lot of other breaking news. Trump bombed a boat of naroterrorists. Or I should say, I haven't read the story. Uh the Trump administration has said they have bombed a boat of narotists. And I always I always take a take it with a little bit of a grain of salt because you don't know who they actually bombed. You just trust or don't trust. But I will say this, the times when they bombed the wrong person, they don't publicly admit it. So if they're coming out and they're saying, "Hey, look at this image. Look at this video. We bombed these guys." They've likely confirmed it and there's going to be no political blowback. But could you imagine if Trump was like, "Hey, we just blew up this boat of narot terrorists. Are you sure?" No. It be kind of crazy if someone was like, "Actually, it turns out they're not." And Trump would be like, "Whoops." So, I'm pretty sure when they're going to publicly declare a thing, they they, you know, cross their tees, dot their eyes, all of that good stuff, my friends. So, we are currently waiting uh the hearing to begin. They're always late, of course. Uh coverage begins at 9:00 a.m. It's expected to begin first thing. I imagine this one will be pretty long, but considering the answers we are looking for pertaining to the Kirk assassination as well as the handling of the FBI, we will uh we'll grab this one for you. But in the meantime, I ask you guys to uh share this live stream. It's the most powerful way to help. We are in a crazy time of social media and it's almost impossible to actually share stuff anymore if you've noticed. I mean, there's X, but even on Facebook, the reach is diminished and almost worthless. They censor half the things you post. YouTube doesn't have a direct share function technically unless you have subscribers. You you can post an image onto Instagram, but you can't really link to things. So, yeah, they're they're really working overtime to make sure that we can't share. Uh, so it looks like we have the uh welcome. Here we go. Looks like it's beginning. I might need to crank the volume up. the people that are here to observe. This is our annual FBI oversight hearing. We meet today in the aftermath assassination Kirk, a school shooting and the senseless murder of Ukrainian refugees. and also to remember several weeks ago the killings in Minnesota. Charlie Kirk was a man of God, faith, family, and country. I pray for his wife, Erica, children, the whole family. God bless you, Charlie Kirk. I've asked uh Director Patel for an update today on this matter. As we proceed with the hearing, Dr. Patel. Director Patel, I'd like to note that you've agreed to one 10-minute round of questioning. That's more time than your predecessor agreed to. When Director Ray appeared before this committee, he left early to go on a family vacation, and he wanted me to think it was business he had to conduct. Wow. Since your confirmation, you've been acquainted with the bureaucracy that you must reform and hold accountable. And that's no simple task. You begun the important work of returning the FBI to its law enforcement mission. According to the FBI since January 20th of this year, the FBI has been involved in arrest of more than 23,000 violent criminals. This year, the FBI assisted in the arrest of more than 1,500 child predators and 300 human traffickers. I think Cat's doing a good job. This year, the FBI helped rescue more than 4,000 children from predators. FBI teams nationwide are working alongside immigration and custom enforcement. This teamwork has resulted in the arrest and removal of a historic number of violent criminal aliens, gang members, and child sex offenders. Those are overwhelming better records than at least two of your past predecessors. During the Ray era at the FBI, the bureau reallocated resources from child crimes to January 6 work. Director Patel, you've also moved agents from headquarters to field offices to better assign uh align with their law enforcement mission. Under your leadership, the FBI has apprehended several most wanted fugitives and secured the extradition of senior leaders of the Central American gangs like MS13. Now, well, it's well understood that your predecessor left you an FBI infected with politics. Understand? going to provide examples of that today, including making public new whistleblower records. At your nomination hearing, I made public records that whistleblowers provide me about Arctic Frost. Arctic Frost was the FBI case opened and approved by anti-Truff Trump FBI agent Tibo. Artic Frost then became Jack Smith's elector case against then Citizen Trump and now President Trump. These new records show that Arctic Frost was much broader than just an electoral matter. The case was expanded to Republican organizations. Some examples of the group that Ray FBI sought to place under political investigation included the Republican National Committee, Republican Attorney General's Association, and various Trump political groups. In total, 92 Republican targets, including Republican groups and Republican linked individuals, were placed under investigative scope of Arctic Frost. On that political list was one of Charlie Kirk's groups, Turning Point USA. Oh, in other words, Arctic Frost wasn't just a case to politically investigate Trump. It was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and Department of Justice prosecutors could achieve their partisan ends and improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus. So today, Senator Johnson and I are making these records public for the entire country to see. And I hope a lot of people are interested in seeing what government can do when various agencies have a political agenda. A lot of bad things. My investigative work has also exposed the political way in which Peter Navaro was investigated and prosecuted. When FBI agent Thibo found out that Biden's DOJ would prosecute Navaro, he said, "Wow, great." That's a quote unquote. Through whistleblowers, I've obtained a audio recording of Special Agent Gia Gardina and Special Agent Sebastian Gardner's delivery of a subpoena to Navaro. I'm making that audio audio public today. In a court document filed by the Department of Justice, Navaro's interaction with the FBI was unfairly described as quote unquote the word combative. That intervention with Navaro was just as the justification to later aggressively arrest him. Then we get to the Clinton annex and the Durham annex. The Clinton annex showed that the Comey FBI had evidence necessary to complete the Clinton investigation. The one about her mishandling of emails and classified information, but the FBI never did its job because it never reviewed the evidence at that time. The Durban annex showed that the Clinton campaign had a plan to falsely tie Trump to Russia. Yet the Comey FBI failed to investigate that information. Instead, the Comey FBI used the discredited Clinton campaignf funded steel dossier to advance Crossfire Hurricane against Trump. Director Patel, thanks in a large part to you. Both annexes were finally declassified. That may be history, but it's history to make sure we don't repeat the history of the past. And the people ought to be concerned when the weaponization of government is used in this way, whether it's done by Republicans or Democrats. Last Cong campaign, last Congress, I made public an FBI document called 1023 form that alleged a bribery scheme with the Biden family. To date, the FBI has never answered Congress whether they investigated the text messages, the audio files, and the financial records referenced in that 1023. whistleblowers have provided my office with two additional FBI 1023 documents. These documents memorialize statements from FBI sources. These two new 1023 documents are from separate FBI confidential human sources during different years. So in total, we now have three different FBI confidential human sources providing information about the Biden family and potential criminal conduct. Today, Senator Johnson and I are releasing these records. Let me say this for the partisan media, the people that are supposed to be policemen of our Republican form of government. We aren't saying the allegations are true. We want to know what the FBI did to fully investigate their veracity, the lack thereof, and what they concluded. Let's put this matter to rest. one way or the other. Starting with my chairmanship, I've given one example after another of disgraceful partisan weaponization by federal law enforcement. Since the Trump administration took power, many FBI agents have been removed. The removal included agents and prosecutors who became partisan weapons that lost their way. And I've made records public to prove it. And many of my whistleblowers were aggressively retaliated against by some FBI agents who were subsequently fired. One FBI whistleblower publicly said of these terminations, quote, "Ensuring that they no longer work at the FBI isn't retribution, it's responsible leadership." End of quote. Which brings me to my final and favorite topic, whistleblowers. In August, 10 of my whistle 10 of my FBI whistleblowers secured compensation agreement because of your leadership, Director Patel. It included a mix of reinstatement of the to the FBI, reinstatement of security clearances, and monetary compensation. At the beginning of this month, another of my FBI whistleblowers got their job back. All told, across government agencies, almost 20 whistleblowers have received fixes to their retaliation. Today you'll get a lot of grief from some members of this committee, but in in the short amount of time you've been director, you've corrected whistleblower retaliation, increased transparency more than any other FBI director I've seen, whether that FBI director was appointed by Republicans or Democrats. And I've been around here more than anybody else on this committee. I yield to Senator Dur. Thanks, Chairman Grassley, for holding this oversight hearing during a critical period in the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. During my four years as chair, I held four hearings within FBI Director Ray. As a reminder to Republicans who claimed the Biden administration weaponized the FBI, President Biden retained Director Ray, a lifelong Republican who was President Trump's nominee for the office. After his second election in an unprecedented move, President Trump forced out Director Ray and nominated Cash Patel, arguably the most partisan FBI director ever. Director Patel came to the FBI with a political mission and he spelled it out in writing in detail. He wrote, "Government gangsters, quote, "The rot at the core of the FBI is not just scandalous, it's an existential threat to our Republican form of government." End quote. And with the power of his office and the blessings of the president, he attacked the FBI with a vengeance. Mr. Patel had falsely claimed the FBI quote was planning January 6 for a year," end quote. He even went so far as to produce a song by the January 6 riers who violently assaulted police officers in the Capitol. He compiled an enemies list of public servants he called government gangsters like former FBI director Müller whom Mattel called quote an utter swamp creature. Former Trump officials who served with Mr. Patel warned us he would weaponize the FBI to protect the president's allies and target his critics. And indeed, Director Patel has already inflicted untold damage on the FBI, putting our national security and public safety at risk. Since January 20th, the Trump administration has engaged in an unprecedented purge of FBI officials. As we heard from highly credible whistleblowers, Mr. Patel was involved in directing this purge even before he was confirmed, despite his sworn testimony to this committee. It began with terminations and forced retirements of all six nonpartisan career officials who run all six branches of the FBI, the executive assistant directors. Since then, at least 18 of the 53 special agents in charge of FBI field offices have been removed along with many other senior officials. individ individual agents have been targeted for termination simply due to the work that they were assigned such as January 6 investigation. In fact, according to former acting FBI director Brian Driscoll Driscoll in a lawsuit filed last week, Director Patel made this very plain, telling Driscoll personally, quote, that his own job depended on the removal of agents who worked on the cases against the president end quote and even though he knew quote the natury nature of summary findings were likely illegal. At the same time, Director Patel has installed MAGA loyalist as political appointees in key career positions, including conspiracy theorist Dan Bonino as FBI de deputy director. The first time in the history of the FBI that this position has not been held by a career FBI agent. Director Patel has also reportedly initiated loyalty test. loyalty test requiring dozens of officials to sit for polygraph exams and answer inappropriate questions about whether they've made negative con comments about him personally. Of course, as is often the case in the Trump administration, the rules apply to thee, but not to me, as we understand it from highly credible sources. Key members of Director Patel's senior executive team and others on the seventh floor had disqualifying alerts on their initial polygraph exams. Well, how did they survive? They survived because of personal waiver by either the director or the attorney general to remain employed by the bureau. Get the understand the context here. Political operatives in key positions given the routine FBI polygram exam failed and had to receive waiverss to continue their positions. They were lucky to keep their political appointments. They were. But the 5,000 career civil servants the director is so far forced out of the bureau's ranks were not offered that same courtesy. 5,000. This mass accident has created a disastrous brain drain, particularly in the fields of cyber security, counterterrorism, and counter intelligence. For example, my office has received information indicating that cuts to the bureau's cyber division will cut personnel by half despite the everinccreasing threats posed by adverse foreign actors. The brain drain is exacerbated by Director Patel's misuse of remaining FBI personnel and resources to f focus on other priorities of this administration. According to reports, the 25 largest FBI field offices have been ordered to divert 45% of their agents from their primary missions to work on the mass deportation of immigrants. Just as concerning is Director Patel's plan to hire fewer qualified agents by removing the college degree degree requirement and reducing new agent training at Quanico from 18 weeks to just eight. So we have a brain drain and a significant water ordering down of training. Quite a record. Mr. Patel Crime has recently fired special agents and others of warren. Fast-tracking inexperienced and improperly trained people into critical national security jeopardizes the bureau's ability to effectively protect America. Director Patel himself had no training or life experience for this position. The result of that incompetence is staggering. For example, after Attorney General Bondi publicly stated in February that the Epstein client list was quote sitting on my desk right now to review, that's what she said on Fox. Director Patel diverted more than a thousand FBI personnel from their critical missions to work on 24-hour shifts reviewing over a 100,000 pages of Epstein related records. These personnel were instructed to flag any records in which President Trump was named, but that review ended in an unsigned memorandum from DOJ and FBI stating simply, "There is no incriminating client list." Close quote. Director Patel still has not responded to my letter from two months ago asking about his role in this coverup. On the day of the horrific shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, Director Patel again sparked mass confusion by incorrectly claiming on social media that the shooter was in custody, which he then had to walk back with another social media post. Mr. Patel was so anxious to take credit for finding Mr. Kirk's assassin that he violated one of the basics of effective law enforcement. at critical stages of an investigation, shut up and let the professionals do their job. Notably, Director Patel recently forced out special agent in charge at Salt Lake City, Miam say, a counterterrorism expert with 20 years experience who would have led this high-profile profile investigation. The men and women who serve at the FBI and the American people deserve a director who has the ability and the character to restore the bureau to its place as the pre-minent law enforcement agency. I want to close on a personal note. I came of age in the 1960s. We experienced a number of horrific assassinations including President John Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King. We are going through a similar period of division and political violence. All of us in public life on both sides of the aisle have a responsibility to bring down the temperature and to work to unite the American people. Let's be clear. Republicans are not Nazis and Democrats are not evil. As Mr. Patel has claimed, Democrats are not responsible for the murder of Charlie Kirk and Republicans were not responsible for the murder of Melissa Hortman. Our political opponents are not our enemies. We are all Americans and we should be working together to keep the American people safe and protect their constitutional rights. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Would you please uh stand so I can swear sworn in? Let's go. Do you do you affirm that the testimony you're about to give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So, help you God. Uh, please be seated and you can give your statement now. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Durban, and members of the committee. It's an honor to be here with you today as the ninth director of the FBI. I want to provide by providing a briefing into the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk. It's important that this FBI is transparent as possible without jeopardizing investigations. Charlie Kirk was shot at 12:23 a.m. excuse me, PM on September 10th. I think this timeline is critically important. Less than a day later, the FBI at my direction released the first set of images of the suspect that we captured based on our analysis on the ground. Later that evening, while conducting extensive interviews and cell phone analysis and also flying out evidence response teams and hostage rescue teams and evidence tacticians who were collecting evidence in live time and flying them back to Washington DC in our laboratories for immediate analysis, we were able to extract video from the campus feed and at my direction at 8 p.m. In partnership and promise to working with the public to bring this fugitive to justice, we released a newly uh never be never before seen video of the suspect. We also released new enhanced photos of the suspect. A few hours later, that suspect was in custody pursuant to the interrogation of the suspect's own father, who stated, "When I saw that video that you released, I recognized it was my son, and I confronted him, and he was handed over to lawful law enforcement authorities." That is the FBI working with the public, as I promised, being transparent, and provided critical information along the way in the manhunt for the suspect or suspects involved in Charlie's misassination. We received over 11,000 tips in the first 24 hours alone. We received 16,000 submissions to our digital media enterprise and tip lines. That is a large number of material to go through. I want to thank President Trump and the Attorney General Pam Bondi for their unwavering support and commitment resources to this and all investigations. I also want to especially thank our colleagues in Utah, Governor's Office, DPS, and the sheriff's out there. state and local law enforcement partnership has been a cornerstone since I took over at the FBI and it was no different here and our teams in Salt Lake City, our SACE's out there across the country, our lab techs in Quantico who raced to complete the evidence analysis so the public could have the answers they need. These people worked through the night without sleep for days on end. They are to be commended. They are not to be attacked. And many, many, many more people I don't have time to thank here today. But I do want to thank the American people especially. The mission of the FBI is for them and with them and by with and through them and is that mission and that ethos that I brought to this investigation and so many others. And that's why that suspect is in custody. We cannot do our job without the American public and credible reporting in the media and that's why Tyler Robinson is in custody today about to face charges. The last time I appeared before this committee was in January for my confirmation hearing. I told you then that if I were conf confirmed, I would provide and do everything I can to provide a safe and secure America. I promise to provide the courageous men and women of the FBI the tools and resources they need to crush violent crime and defend the homeland. I pledge myself to commit to full transparency, oversight, and accountability so we could restore the public's trust in the FBI. That's exactly what I've done. Under this administration, the FBI's arrested more than 23,000 violent criminals. That's more than twice for the same time period from last year alone. 23,000 more than twice from the same time period last year. We've taken over over 6,000 illegal firearms off the streets. That number is an exponential increase. We've identified and located more than 4,700 child victims. More than 4,700 child victims have been found by this FBI. That is a 35% increase from the same time period last year. 1,500 child predators have been arrested. That's a 5% increase from the same time last year. 300 human traffickers have been arrested. That's a 10% increase from the same time last year. Over 350 members of Trendai Aragua, foreign terrorist organization, have been arrested. And we have 42 ongoing cases. That is a 250% increase from the same time last year. Those are just some of the things the FBI is doing differently and better because we are leading the mission to crush violent crime and defend the homeland. We have also arrested four captured four top 10 fugitives from the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. To put that in perspective, that's the same amount I've captured in seven months than my predecessor did during the entirety of the Biden administration. Those are real results and the credit is to the men and women at the FBI. We've been able to achieve these results because the FBI recognizes violent crime doesn't just happen in Washington DC. That's why one of my first decisions as a director was to get the people, the bureau's professional staff out to the field. And we've done that with great speed. And every single one of your districts and states has received a plus up of FBI personnel, agents, and special operators to the tune of almost a thousand. We did that because crime had unexpectedly and un unacceptably exploded um across the country. In fact, one of the stats that the American people should thank the FBI the most for is we are on track to have the lowest murder rate in modern American history. The lowest murder rate by doubledigit percentages. A major factor in the drop of this violent crime is the FBI's flagship operation, Summer Heat. We use this initiative at the direction of the president and the attorney general, surging resources to our major and mid- major cities across America, conducting intelligence-based operations to target the worst of the worst, to target the gangs, to target the transnational organizations, to target the TCOs, and to target the drug trafficking cartels. that we have taken them out city by city. There's a lot of work left to be done, but we're off to a great start. Just ask the citizens of Seattle, Miami, Memphis, Charlotte, Chicago, and so many more places. Specifically, in New Orleans and Nashville alone, there has been an increase in the number of violent crime arrests by an average of 250% for each of those cities. And there has been a drastic reduction in crime across the board in mid- major cities across this country, thanks to the men and women of the FBI. How are we doing that? We are attacking the drug e drug epidemic. We've seized nearly a thousand kilograms of meth and cocaine off the streets of America. We've taken over 1600 1600 kg of fentinol off the streets. Maybe one of the greatest achievements we have this year. 1,600 kg of fentinol. That's a 25% increase from the same time last year. To put things in perspective, that's enough fentinol to kill a third of the American populace. 115 million Americans. We're also going after the companies that manufacture these precursors overseas in places like mainland China and and their cutting agents. In fact, this month in Cincinnati, we announced groundbreaking charges aimed at the individuals and businesses responsible for flooding these opioids and their precursors and cutting agents into the streets of America. And for the first time that I can remember, we are charging these businesses and enterprises, not just in America, but in mainland China, and seizing their operational necessity to have money by seizing their cryptocurrency wallets. We're also equally important to protecting the homeland. We know we have a no fail mission. We're committed to keeping our nation safe from terrorism, cyber attacks, and foreign adversaries. Whether stopping threats inspired by foreign terrorist organizations or lonewolf factors or sponsored by hostile nation states. This year we've already made nearly 60 counter intelligence arrest. 60 counter intelligence arrest this year alone is a 30% increase from the same time period last year for the CI work at the FBI. I'm proud when we can share our successes, such as when an espionage charge was brought against an active duty US Navy sailor caught spying for the People's Republic of China. But I want the American people to know the FBI is protecting the homeland from foreign adversaries in a way that will never make the news. And a lot of the good work that they do will never be able to discuss in this setting. We're working on cyber threats. We're attacking malware infrastructure. going after ransomware attackers, delivering a new partnership with the private public sector engagements we've taken with the companies who are attacked by these foreign adversaries and nation state actors and individual inter enterprise rings from around the world. We are combating Salt Typhoon, Vault Typhoon, Flax Typhoon, and so many other ransomware and cyber threats this nation faces. We're also arresting people such as Tajik National in Brooklyn who was suspected of sending tens of thousands of dollars to support ISIS. We're going after the new form of what I refer to as modern-day terrorism in America, 764 crimes that involve harming our children by going after them online, causing self mutilation, suicide, sexual abuse, and steering them in the wrong direction. Currently, we have 3,500 international terrorism investigations. Specifically, we have in this country 1,700 domestic terrorism investigations, a large chunk of which are nealistic violent extremism, NVE. Those who engage in violent acts motivated by a deep hatred of society, whatever that justification they seem is. The FBI has seen a 300% increase in cases opened this year alone versus the same time last year. In the last couple of months, the FBI secured a guilty plea for a man in Tennessee who attacked an energy facility with drones and explosives. We secured the indictment of a violent Sinaloa cartel faction leader in Chicago on narco terrorism charges. Our folks in San Francisco, excuse me, Sacramento collaborated with domestic and international partners to secure a guilty plea for a leader of a transnational terrorist organization who solicited the murder of federal officials. But the bureau's job is not done. I'm committed to this transparency. Mr. Mr. Chairman, you alluded to our work with Congress. To date, in the seven months that I've been FBI director, we have produced 33,000 pages to the United States Congress. 33,000 pages. Just to put that in perspective, my predecessor in his seven-year term issued 13,000 pages to Congress. And his predecessor in his four-year term issued 3,000 pages to Congress. I've issued 33,000 pages in 7 months. And we're going to keep going. I'm dedicated to restoring the trust that the public has and needs and the integrity at the FBI and it's being done every day by the men and women at the FBI. Now, I know that there's a lot of talk about Epstein and I'm here to testify that the original sin in the Epstein case was the way it was initially brought by Mr. Acasta back in 2006. The original case involved a very limited search warrant or set of search warrants and didn't take as much investigatory material it should have seized. If I were the FBI director, then it wouldn't have happened. The search warrants were limited to small time periods to include 2002 to 2005 and 1997 to 2001. Mr. Aassa allowed Epstein to enter in 2008 to a plea and nonprosecution agreement, which then the courts issued mandates and protective orders legally prohibiting anyone from ever seeing that material ever again without the permission of the court. The non-prosecution agreements also barred future prosecutions for those involved at that time of those individuals. Still, this administration at the direction of President Trump has done more to turn over all the credible information we are legally able to do so. And we will continue to work with Congress to achieve that end. Wow. Under the direction of the president, we excuse me. Thank you for your support for our mission to working to jointly deliver transparency and congressional oversight to the United States. Lastly, I want to close with the president's initiative here in Washington DC as an example of what we're doing around the country. And I think our next city is Memphis. 21,000 arrests in DC with our federal partners. A huge decrease in violent crime. 60% decrease in gun crimes in Washington DC in the last month. 74% decrease in carjackings in Washington DC in the last month. 53% decrease in homicides in Washington DC in the last month. The drugs are disappearing. People are freely walking around the states and restoring the nation's capital to its glory. That work is through the inter agency process that the FBI is proud to be a part of and the initiative spearheaded by President Trump and the attorney general. And perhaps most notably for investigations in Washington itself, it was the intelligence that the FBI gra gathered through our source network here in DC that helped us identify the suspects in the horrific murder of the DC intern Eric Tarpinian. We're proud to be a part of that investigation. We're proud to put the resources to bear of the FBI. And in closing, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee and ranking member Durban, I'm honored to be the ninth director of the FBI. I'm not going anywhere. If you want to criticize my 16 years of service, please bring it on. Over to you. Let's go. Nope, we can't hear you, buddy. His mic's off. U I've observed uh when whether it's Republican or Democrats want a yes or no answer that the witness and the senators talking over each other. So, I thought what I'd do this time rather than have that happen if there's something you don't get a chance to answer uh because of the demeanor of a Republican or Democrat senator before we when we get done with that uh question or I'd give you a chance to fill in if there's something you didn't didn't get a chance to say. Uh, since 2019, I've sought greater transparency about Jeffrey Epstein and the government handling of the matter. I've continued to investigate during this Congress. Director Patel, was Jeffrey Epstein an intelligence asset for the United States government or the foreign government? And if so, which agencies or governments? Mr. Mr. Chairman, I can only speak to the FBI as the director of the FBI and Mr. Epstein was not a source for the FBI. Okay. Uh would you commit to providing my office with all classified non-classified records relating to the Epstein matter? I will commit to providing all all records. I'm legally permitted to do so under the court orders. Um uh it seems to me that uh I accept your answer to my question, but the broader intelligence community ought to answer these questions as well. Uh victims deserve an answer. uh regarding the initial FBI 1023 document that I made public last Congress. That document mentioned one text messages, two audio recordings and three financial records that allegedly proved a bribery scream scheme with the Biden family and foreign interest. Regarding those records, did the Ray FBI make any effort to determine whether they existed? Uh, did the F uh Ray FBI make any effort to obtain those records? Not to my knowledge, Mr. Chairman, since this matter hasn't been fully investigated, the FBI has an obligation to the public to do exactly that and figure out why it wasn't investigated. Uh, next question. Uh, I've done a lot of oversight relating to sexual misconduct by the FBI agents. In fact, I believe this is something I discussed with Rey, one of his appearances before this committee. According to the FBI inspection division, it opened nearly 300 investigations based on sexual misconduct referrals between 2017 and 2024. According to whistleblowers, the Biden Ray uh FBI totally dropped the ball on this question. One credible accusation of sexual misconduct is uh too many, of course. Are you committed to reviewing the bureau's policies to ensure responsible responses to credible allegations of misconduct that they're swift and adequately protect victims? Yes, Mr. Chairman. Relating to a similar subject, during child uh crimes and sexual misconduct related investigations, are any private sector companies less than cooperative with you? What improvements in information sharing need to be made to catch those criminals? Mr. Chairman, we can always do better with their private sector companies. I've reached out to uh the leaders of most of them asking them to provide more material so that we can be responsive and take legal action and protect the youth of this country. Um I'm happy to discuss, you know, possible legislation that we can do to allow for these companies to continue. Yeah. Say maybe one inch up on the microphone. Sorry, not I think you're close enough, but I think it's just a little bit lower. When you raise your head, it's difficult to hear. Uh, Director Patel, since 2021, I've raised concerns about the Biden administration failure to properly vet Afghan evacuees. Director Gabbard informed my office that as of August 2022, approximately 1,600 evacuees located in the United States had ties to terrorism and other derogatory information. That's why I and many others have opposed bills giving blanket approval. Are you aware of what steps your predecessor took to investigate these evacuees and what steps have you taken to investigate them? And what if any national security current concerns still exist? Um, Mr. Chairman, I can't speak to the steps my predecessor took, but I will um uh make sure we do a sweeping review and get back to you on that. As part of the Afghan refugees and evacuees, um, as during my tenure, we are going through the databases to make sure that no known or suspected terrorists enter this country to harm our nation. And also is my resolve as FBI director. One of the first acts we undertook was a manhunt of one of the Abigate bombers and leaders in that crime spree that killed 13 brave Americans. And within two weeks, within two weeks, we caught one of the leaders of the Abigate bomber and brought him to justice here in two weeks from Pakistan. And so my commitment to you on Afghanistan in all matters is complete and without border. Yeah. Uh through my and other investigations, we found that the Biden administration lost thousands of undocumented children. We never heard a peep from um uh senators wanting to help find them even after I invited them to do so. In September 2025, uh the Trump Health and Human Services announced the creation of an inter agency crime coordinator cell uh to find these and other missing children. that inter agency group report reportedly includes your agency. Uh what resources and personnel have the FBI assigned to this new inter agency effort and what steps have the FBI taken to assist in locating missing children uh that the incompetent Biden administration lost? Protecting our youth is maybe the top priority for the FBI. Um, as it specifically relates to your question, Mr. Chairman, as I stated, we've searched resources not just to this cell, but across the nation to our FBI's field office to locate children who have been trafficked, who have been victims of sexual abuse. And we have located 4,700 children in the seven months since I've been FBI director. And that is a 35% increase from the same time period last year. And we're not stopping. And we're committed to doing that work on our tribal lands as well. and we are finding victims of child trafficking and child abuse every county in every district and we're not going to stop. Okay. Um, as I mentioned during my opening, I'm releasing documents with Senator Johnson about Arctic Frost. Specifically, the documents show its scope expanded to include 92 Republican organizations. From evidence that I've seen, it looks to me like another political hit job against Republicans. What steps has the FBI taken to make sure improperly predicated investigations and weaponizations like this don't happen again? The simple answer, Mr. Chairman, is the FBI will only bring cases that are based in fact and law and have a legal basis to do so. And anyone that does otherwise will not be employed at the FBI. We are doing a prospective and retrospective analyses of individuals who may have weaponized the department and the agency. And as I've committed to you during my confirmation hearing and my conversations with you, this FBI will not be weaponized anymore in either side of the aisle. In June of this year, I raised concerns about the FBI's use of res restricted access and prohibited access systems. According to the FBI, quote, "When search teams uh when search teams that exist in a prohibited uh access status cases are searched in Sentinel, uh the particular search will receive a false negative sent response." End of quote. Clearly, this is not only uh affects FBI agents. It impacts congressional requests and court cases, and the Biden administration used it to thwart oversight. How are you ensuring that restricted access and prohibited access files are produced to Congress during court cases? And have you identified any Biden family records in restricted and prohibited status? As I've committed to you with the my transparency initiative, whether it's restrictive or prohibited, every single thing we can legally provide to Congress, we will. We've also restructured how these restrictive and prohibited cases are labeled and provided access to more people in the chain of command so that more people have knowledge of what these restricted and prohibited cases are, including myself and the deputy. Uh do you commit to providing any records that that are available? I do, sir. Uh the uh you publicly said that your team quote found a room that Comey and others hid from the world in the Hoover building full of documents and computer hard drives. Uh no one had ever seen or heard of. That's a quote from you. I've received a whistleblower disclosure that the room contain some information kept outside the FBI recordkeeping. I also have been informed via a whistleblower disclosure that the room included materials related to special counsel Mueller, former director James Comey, and other documents maintained outside of the FBI. Has the FBI now reviewed and analyzed those records? Has the FBI properly uh recorded the documents and these records are clearly responsive to my as well as my colleagues congressional requests. What steps have you taken to ensure all responsive records are produced to Congress? That's what has to be my last question. What's supposed to happen is leadership at the FBI is supposed to pursuant to the records act uh correctly store these records that are information management division IMD. In this room we found a plethora of hard drives, computers, hard documents, soft documents that were not so recorded, a voluminous amount of information. So we are continuously processing that information. So, a we subscribe to the records act and commit that those records will be kept permanently at the FBI. Two, we are reviewing those materials. A lot of those materials are related to ongoing investigations. And three, we are on a rolling basis providing Congress the documents that we can and we will continue to do so. Okay. Thank you very much, Senator Durban. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, Director Patel, in addition to the extensive purge of nonpartisan career FBI official reports, reports indicate that dozens of remaining officials have been suggested have been subjected to polygraph exams to test their loyalty. My understanding is that approximately 40 officials have been asked to sit for a polygraph during your administration and several have been asked whether they have ever made negative comments about you. Director Patel, FBI agents pledge their loyalty to the Constitution in the United States, not you personally. What is the basis for requiring polygraph exams or your workforce and asking them if they made ne negative comments about you? I don't know what reports I don't know what reports you're referring to, ranking member, and I reject any reporting that has false information in it. So, I'm not going to respond to that. As far as polygraphs go, generally they are always and always have been utilized at the FBI to track down those that leak sensitive information and have unauthorized disclosures to the media. And we will continue to use them to ensure the integrity of the FBI. Did any individual on your senior executive team, the director's advisory team, or who serve in the positions on the seventh floor receive disqualifying alerts on their polygraphs? Senator, I'm not going to get into the personnel discussions that were had on a polygraph. Those are private discussions and many of them relate to ongoing investigations. Did you or Attorney General Bondi provide any individual with a waiver so they could remain employed after they receive disqualifying alerts on their polygraphs? I'll have to get back to you. You don't remember that? No sir. My priority is protecting the American public, not getting into the weeds of polygraphs and to have a decent memory when you come before a committee. I'm happy to talk about all the good work the men and women of the FBI are doing, including provided the lowest crime rate in American history. If you want to talk about how to protect the citizens of Chicago has seen a 30% reduction in its murder rate because of the men and women of the FBI, you take credit for that. I'll happily do that. The inter agency partners and the men and women that Chicago PD have never been more power. Include local law enforcement, please. Have you ever seen my testimony across this country where I always lead with our inter agency partnerships with state and local law enforcement? It is the pillar of what I am doing. And on the seventh floor, for the first time in FBI history, I have installed police officers and sheriffs right on my seventh floor to report to us every day what's going around the country on the street level because that is a priority of the FBI and is the only way we are going to work. I don't take credit for the anything, but I will defend the men and women of the FBI and the cops that help us get it done. You should, Director Patel. To your knowledge, did a whistleblower ever make a disclosure to Attorney General Bondi indicating that the New York field office was withholding Epstein related records. I'm not familiar with that whistleblower. Whoa. There. There. You know that there was such a whistleblower? I'm not familiar with that whistleblower. In response to the blowback she received, Attorney General Bondi also pushed the FBI to review approximately 100,000 Epstein related records on an arbitrarily short deadline in March. And the FBI was directed to flag any documents that mentioned President Trump. Nothing came of that review until July when DOJ and FBI released an unsigned memorandum stating there is no incriminating client list. Why was this July 7th memorandum unsigned? Would you prefer I've used autopen? Well, why was The memorandum had the insignia of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And in our effort to secure transparency for the American people because the three prior administrations had not done so, we conducted an exhaustive search of everything related to the Epstein cases and we produced what was legally and permissibly able to be produced to Congress and the American public. There's a congressional subpoena and we're continuing to do so. Did I personally direct that investigation so that you would sign such an Did I personally direct what investigation of the Epstein records for any reference to President Trump? Again, you are citing reporting that I think is baseless. We conducted an investigation of the Epstein case files pursuant to the direction of the president of the administration to provide all credible information and we are working with Congress pursuant to a congressional subpoena to turn over all the documents we can all individuals who at DOJ and FBI were was responsible for its drafting and conclusions. Many individuals at the Department of Justice and the FBI are responsible. There was no lead no lead person. The attorney general leads the Department of Justice and I lead the FBI. So the attorney general is responsible for that. The attorney general leads the department of justice. Director Patel, much like you, D deputy director Dian Bonino was a conspiracy theorist who built a lucrative career making inflammatory and unsubsantiated statements about the FBI that would be disqualifying in any administration that cared about nonpartisan law enforcement. For instance, Mr. Bonjino called the placement of pipe bombs outside the DNC and RNC headquarters on January 6 quote an inside job and went on to say this was a setup. I have zero doubt and whoever goes into the FBI, you better get an answer about why. Director Patel, you and Deputy Director Banino are now leading the FBI. What is the evidence to suggest the pipe bombs placed outside of the DNC and RNC on January 6 were an inside job? I appreciate the opportunity to discuss director Bonjino's mind record. So many on this committee in the media jettison our 31 years of public service prior to answer the question sir. I'm answering the question. You're you're questioning the integrity of the deputy director of the FBI and mine and I'm going to answer the question. The pipe bomb investigation is ongoing and I'm not going to discuss the details of the pipe bomb investigation. Mr. Bonino was a secret service agent for 15 years, a police officer for five. I served this country in multiple administrations for 16 years. We were also private citizens and we are now back in government service. And what we have the ability to do is set aside our personal beliefs to deliver the mission of justice for this country. And we're doing it day in and day out. And I find it disgusting that everyone and anyone would jettison our 31 years of combined experience that is now at the helm of the FBI delivering historic results at historic speeds for the American people. So you have no evidence? I got a lot of evidence and I'll give it to you when I can. Yeah, looking forward to it. Uh there's a New York Times story this morning about Chris Meyer. As I understand it, he was your personal pilot at least for some period of time. Mr. Meyer has quite a record himself. Flew over 350 hours as an Air Force pilot on three aircraft types in Afghanistan. Mr. Jordina, another former FBI agent, a 1999 graduate of US Naval Academy, commanded 100 Marines in combat during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, participated in several firefights, followed up with 2011 deployment as reserveist to Afghanistan where he interrogated senior Taliban officials. It appears that you terminated these two agents. Why? I'm not going to get into personnel decisions that we made. This is awesome. So, you're not accountable for your decisions to take people who served our country so admirably and terminate them without any cause? That's a one-sided story. Anyone that has been terminated from FBI generous, tell your side of the story. Fail to meet the needs of the FBI and uphold their constitutional duties and you providing a one-sided story from your purge is absolutely disgraceful because the men and women of the FBI deserve better. And your attack on the current leadership of the men and women of the FBI is equally disgraceful because now you're attacking the leaders that are our brave SACE and the people who are doing the job that this country needs and we will continue to do it. Excuse me. It's disgraceful when Mr. Meyer and Mr. Jordina who served our country so well are terminated apparently because of the rants of a broadcaster. That is your opinion. It is not a fact. Well, it's certainly my opinion. I can back up with fact. Let me ask you to explain the situation in Baltimore, if you will. Did you read the story about the termination of the project in Baltimore? Which? 764 group. Sorry, which story? 764 group. The Baltimore agents were investigating. Are you familiar with that? No, sir. Well, I'm not I'm not going to go into detail. It take too long to do it. But apparently that this group 764, a neolistic violent extremist group, seeks to blackmail children to perform vile acts on a camera under investigation by Baltimore, which was terminated by you. I'd like you to respond in writing, if you will, as to the circumstances of that termination. Sure. our our our operations against NVEs as you're referring to has been historically high and we've taken down multiple NVE rings including 764 rings who are harming children and causing them to be mutilated. And last question, can you explain why you are eliminating the uh requirements for college degree for your agents? I appreciate the opportunity to address that. Um you said in your opening statement, we are reducing the training requirements at Quantico. We are not. We are expanding them. You're referring to an 1811 crossover program because I believe the men and women of places like the DEA, the ATF, and the Marshall Service, and the Secret Service who want to work at the FBI should deserve that opportunity in a shortened bridged program, which we provided. We are also keeping the 18 18week BFTC as it's traditionally been held at the FBI. So, we're not reducing any requirements. We are increasing those that we bring into the FBI. Did you change any of the requirements on college degrees? Uh, we are allowing police officers who have served for a number of years to come into the FBI who did not obtain the requisite college degree to apply to be federal agents because we feel they have the street level experience we need to conduct this mission. I yield, Mr. Chairman. He couldn't counter that. Cops are good, right? I have to respond to this business about you not treating uh employees properly because I've uh served under the previous administration when de uh Democrats willingly turned a blind eye to Biden administration retaliation against my whistleblowers. Uh they didn't get due process when their careers and lives were upended. I'm talking about people like Dena Perkins, Jeffrey Veltry, Timothy Dunnan were removed from their positions. Several whistleblowers were reported that they targeted FBI employees for their political beliefs by suspending and revoking security clearances. One FBI whistleblower said that Perkins, Veterary Dunan, and other FBI leaderships were quote responsible for what happened to me and my family, ensuring that they no longer work at the FBI isn't retribution, it's responsible leadership. Another whistleblower that is a registered Democrat said they spoke out against abuses and security clearances processes committed by FBI senior leaders particularly Veltry and Perkins then Perkins and Dunan suspended their security clearances and put them in unpaid leave. I'm going to put some more examples like this in the record so I don't take up a lot of time for my colleagues. Uh, Senator Graham. Thanks, Senator Graham. Welcome uh to the committee. The numbers sort of speak for themselves. You've done a lot in a small period of time. So, all those folks out there making this happen, thank them for me. Um, uh, as to u how to be an FBI agent. You made a decision that u local law enforcement folks, people who have served in law enforcement without a college degree are able to apply now. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Makes sense to me. So experience out in the field might be as valuable as a college degree, believe it or not. More valuable. Um, Venezuela, we're blowing boats out of the water in the Caribbean uh because they're connected to uh international narotist groups. Is that correct? Yes, that mission is being led by the Department of Defense, sir. Okay. What legal authority do we have to do that? Sir, I would defer the questions on legal authority to the attorney general and the department. Fair enough. Do you believe that uh Maduro runs a naroterrorism state in Venezuela based on I believe based on the intelligence and prosecutions and investigations we are currently running. A large portion of the cocaine that exits out of South America, its origination point is in Venezuela. and using trans shshipment points through Haiti. They're using the navigable waterways in the Caribbean to the endstate delivery, which is the United States of America. And we will hunt down every single one of those narot traffickers with the authority. There's some actual indictments of Madur as an individual for being involved in that. Is that correct? Uh, Senator, I think you're referring to the DEA indictment on that one. Right. So, I guess the point is, would it be fair to say that Venezuela is a good candidate to be labeled as a state sponsor of terrorism under US law? Senator, from from my perch, um, we will provide the intelligence necessary for anyone who meets the threshold to be a state sponsor of terrorism and this administration. I think they are. So, we'll be going down that road. China, uh, on a scale of 1 to 10, one being nothing, 10 being great. Um, how is China helping with their fentanyl problem here in the United States? Under this administration, we have taken, as I highlighted the Cincinnati case, um, the precursors are the problem. The fentinol is the end state that kills American citizens. The precursors are made in China, right? They're made in China. And so, for the first time in a decade, I had a call with my counterpart in the MPS, the Ministry of Public Services, to attack the precursor chemical companies and have those labels have those chemicals lab. too early to rate the success. We have indicted multiple businesses in China. We've also cut off the transip transipment points of those precursors. They switched once we got on their track about their delivery routes to the Mexican drug cartels directly. They started going to India. We called the Indian authorities and they shut down those trans shipment points. So, we're continuing to work with our partners. China is helping. Would you say they are starting to help? Um and we are hoping under this administration's leadership we can get more. we know, you know, in the coming months if that continues cuz if they are helping, that's a good thing. We need to celebrate the breakthrough. If they're not, that would be a bad thing. U so after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, there seems to be one refrain from everybody, and that's about the effect of social media. Do you believe that social media is one of the instruments radicalizing America and Wow. inciting violence? Well, it's not. My belief is based on the data and the data shows that social media is wildly out of control when it comes to radicalizing. You're dead right. So, what did he just say? This guy's the FBI director. He says that social media is wildly out of control. Now, free speech, we all agree with that, but you can't yell fire in the theater, right? Yes, sir. Wrong. Free speech doesn't allow you to go online and groom a child for sexual No, it does not. No, you can't. Free speech doesn't allow you to go on the internet and basically incite somebody to kill another person, right? Absolutely not. So, if it's illegal offline, it should be illegal online. Agreed. Whatever the law is. Yes, sir. Just because you're online doesn't give you a get out of jail free card. No sir. So, if a parent is worried about a child being bullied on a website, what rights do they have under US law? We have to balance the rights, as you said, Senator, of free speech versus those that encroach. Is there any law that can shut down one of these sites for bullying children or allowing sexual predators on the site? We are able to attack certain sites on the dark web. When it comes to the open internet infrastructure system, we have to reach a threshold to attack a company's position that only subscribes to violence. Can can the parent sue that company? They can. They can. They can sue not the social media companies. That's what I'm talking about. They can sue the companies. I'm talking about the social media company that gives lives to this behavior. No, you're referring to section 230, sir. Yeah. Would you advocate um a sunsetting of section 230 to bring more liability to the companies who send this stuff out? I've advocated that for that for years. All right, we need to do this, folks. Whoa. These companies are taking content that it makes you sick, that could get you killed, get you poisoned, and there's nothing we can do about it under our law, a person can do about it because section 230. So if your child is being sexually groomed online or bullied online and you go to the social media company and ask them to take it down, they refuse. You have like zero rights. How many images of sexually exploited children are purveyed every year on social media sites? The number is astronomical. And Senator, if I can just add one step to that analysis, please. It's not just what's on social media that is quote unquote real. It's the introduction of artificial intelligence and generative AI that is creating even more child sexually abuse material and even more uh sexually uh violent acts online and mimicking people. Would you say that the way social media structure today really no accountability 36 million images in 2023 of sexually exploited children that this is a public health hazard? It is. Would you say that it's a mental health problem, particularly for younger people? It absolutely is. Do you agree that some of these sites are designed to be addictive? I think not only are some of these sites designed to be addictive, unfortunately, the reality is some of these sites are designed to generate income and many people are generating income based on this illegal trade. Do you think it's now time for America to deal with this problem? I'm all in. I have been all in and I'm happy to work with Congress to do so. Well, I tell you what, having the FBI director all in is great news uh for me and I hope the committee will respond and that will be all in trying to fix a problem that I think is doing a lot of damage u to our country. Uh when it comes to John Bolton, was there new evidence involved in the raid on his home? Uh sir, that investigation is very much ongoing. As you know, there was a raid of his house pursuant to illegal. Was there a warrant obtained to go in? Absolutely, sir. Okay. All right. Um, we're looking to have that search warrant um unsealed um at the I think that would be good, quite frankly. Um in December 2023, Director Ray said he sees blinking lights everywhere regarding to foreign terrorist threats against our homeland. How would you characterize the state of threats to our homeland by foreign terrorist groups? Foreign terrorist organizations have adapted and started utilizing online platforms and so is the FBI. And so while they are adapting, expanding how they harm our country, we have as well. They have not stopped. There's been a resurgence in places like West Africa and elsewhere of foreign terrorist organizations and also the newly emboldened drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. It's going to take a whole of government approach to uh to get Does Hezbollah fall within that group? Yes sir. So Hezbollah is involved in not only terrorism but narco terrorism. Yes sir. So do you see consider Hezbollah a threat to the United States? Absolutely. All right. Finally, um do you have enough people sorry do all this? Do you need more people? You're involved in a lot of things and the numbers speak for themselves. You have FBI agents helping here in Washington DC. You have FBI agents helping and illegal immigration. That's good. You got a chance here to tell us if you need more people. Seems to me the threat level to this country is pretty high right now. You got thousands of uh domestic terrorism cases. How many are being investigated? I I think 3,500 off the top of my head. 3500. Okay. Anyway, it seems your plate's pretty full. I would urge you to get with your people. And if you think you need more people, now's the time to do it. It would be a shame to miss an opportunity to plus up the FBI if the threats justified it. Will you look? I will look, sir. Okay. But are you comfortable you have enough people right now? Right now I'm comfortable with the reallocation of agents and personnel outside of Washington DC and plusing up states like South Carolina and double digit numbers. And I'll get back with my team on this one. Thank you for your service. Senator White House. Boy, is my timing good. It is very good. Director Patel, welcome. Thank you, sir. Um when you were here for your confirmation, we talked about your uh so-called enemies list. Um it appears to me that there have been adverse actions of various kinds taken against about 20 of the 60 people on your enemies list. You've been in office for seven months. At that rate, you've got 14 months until you've hit all 60. Can you explain that? Again, that is an entirely inaccurate presupposition. I do not have an enemy's list. You can continue to characterize it as you wish. The only actions we take, generally speaking, for personnel at the FBI are ones based on merit and qualification and your ability to uphold your constitutional duty. You fall short, you don't work there anymore. Well, there was a list. you don't like it to be called an enemy's list and it had about 60 names and about 20 have had an adverse action. So those are I think pretty clear facts. Let me move on to um your grand jury testimony which we also talked about uh when you were here. Um, I think you indicated that you understood that a witness in the grand jury is free to discuss afterwards whatever they told the grand jury. Um, and you then went on to suggest uh saying I can't go into court orders granted by the DC district chief judge and you want me to violate a court order. In those remarks, you fairly plainly suggested that there was a court order of some kind that somehow restricted or limited your ability to discuss your own testimony to that grand jury. Since then, that chief judge that you mentioned, Judge Booseberg, has written, and I'm quoting him here, federal rule of criminal procedure 6E allows witnesses like Patel to divulge the contents of their testimony, meaning that nothing was preventing him from doing so before the committee. Can we confirm here today that there is no court order of any kind that limits your ability as a witness before the grand jury to discuss your own testimony to that grand jury? We can confirm that pursuant to my action that that grand jury testimony has been released. The transcript Whoops. Let's um Whoops. In what forum was it released, man? Publicly. Okay, we'll check on that. Um the FBI does background investigations. In the case of