Blumenthal Demands Answers from Trump FBI Pick Kash Patel on Dangerous History of Conspiracy Theories, Threats to Weaponize DOJ

[WASHINGTON, DC] - U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote today to President-elect Donald Trump's presumptive nominee to be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel, demanding an explanation for his previously stated support of harmful conspiracy theories, such as QAnon, and raising concerns about his apparent disregard for the importance of the FBI's work and staff and his threats to weaponize the FBI against political enemies and journalists.

"As a counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative body, the Bureau has a direct impact on the lives and safety of all Americans," wrote Blumenthal. "The Bureau also employs approximately 38,000 people, has an annual budget of over $10 billion, and maintains domestic field offices and more than 90 overseas offices and sub-offices. When the Bureau's agents do not receive adequate support or leadership, the American people suffer-child predators walk free, drug cartels poison the public, and terrorists claim lives."

Blumenthal continued, "As the nation's top federal law enforcement organization, the FBI must be committed to rigorous investigation and concrete facts. Instead, you have publicly promoted false claims regarding 2020 election fraud, the FBI's involvement in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and the QAnon conspiracy theory. A person who promotes and amplifies unverified and harmful conspiracy theories is simply not qualified to serve as the Bureau's Director."

"I am deeply concerned by the variety of ways your comments and actions suggest you are unfit to lead the FBI. In his memoir, Former Attorney General Barr-who led the DOJ under President Trump-wrote that you 'had virtually no experience that would qualify [you] to serve at the highest level of the world's preeminent law enforcement agency.' Your actions and rhetoric since you worked with Former Attorney General Barr appear only to confirm his concerns and demonstrate a disregard for both law enforcement and the law, an affinity for debunked and baseless conspiracy theories, and a desire to use the Bureau as a tool of political retribution," Blumenthal concluded.

The full text of Blumenthal's letter is available here and below.

Dear Mr. Patel,

Congratulations on your nomination to serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI" or "the Bureau"). I look forward to your upcoming testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The FBI Director is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Bureau, which serves as the principal federal law enforcement agency of the United States.[1] As a counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative body, the Bureau has a direct impact on the lives and safety of all Americans. The Bureau also employs approximately 38,000 people, has an annual budget of over $10 billion, and maintains 55 domestic field offices and more than 90 overseas offices and sub-offices.[2] When the Bureau's agents do not receive adequate support or leadership, the American people suffer-child predators walk free, drug cartels poison the public, and terrorists claim lives.

Given your past statements and writings-including your promotion of harmful conspiracy theories, disregard for the importance of the Bureau's work and staff, and threats to weaponize the FBI against political enemies and journalists-I am deeply concerned about your qualifications to serve in this role.

Promotion of Conspiracy Theories

As the nation's top federal law enforcement organization, the FBI must be committed to rigorous investigation and concrete facts. Instead, you have publicly promoted false claims regarding 2020 election fraud, the FBI's involvement in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and the QAnon conspiracy theory. A person who promotes and amplifies unverified and harmful conspiracy theories is simply not qualified to serve as the Bureau's Director.

False Claims Regarding the 2020 Election

The Director of the FBI leads the nation's top federal law enforcement agency. It is, therefore, essential that the Bureau's leader respects election results, regardless of politics, and aggressively combats efforts by foreign adversaries and domestic actors to illegitimately co-opt those elections. Disturbingly, however, since the results of the 2020 election were finalized, you have consistently and repeatedly supported President-Elect Trump's incorrect and dangerous claim that the election was stolen from him by President Biden. You have vowed to "come after" the people you allege "helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections."[3] The title of your children's book, The Plot Against the King: 2,000 Mules, directly references a completely debunked election conspiracy film-and the plot is a thinly veiled recitation of false claims regarding the 2020 election.[4]

The integrity of our nation's elections is of the utmost importance. Stopping the spread of inaccurate and misleading information-often planted and promoted by foreign adversaries-is essential in ensuring our elected government truly is of, by, and for the people. The FBI is the "lead federal agency responsible for investigating foreign influence operations."[5] Replacing its leader with someone who himself spreads misinformation would only increase the vulnerability of our elections and embolden our country's rivals.

Promotion of the QAnon Conspiracy Theory

The QAnon conspiracy theory falsely claims that the so-called "deep state" works alongside pedophile political elites to traffic children.[6] Adherents of QAnon believe that a government insider known as "Q" is working to take down this alleged network and has provided clues via online message boards.[7] QAnon supporters have been aware of you for years-in 2018, you were mentioned by name in one of those supposed clues with the note "name to remember."[8]

The FBI-the very agency you are nominated to lead-included QAnon in its 2022 report on Strategic Intelligence Assessment and Data on Domestic Terrorism, writing:

We assess that adherence to elements of the continuously evolving QAnon conspiracy theory-some of which are bolstered by the resonance of election fraud narratives-will contribute to the radicalization and mobilization to violence of a small number of [domestic violent extremists], posing a threat to individuals and institutions that supporters of the conspiracy theory have prominently denounced.[9]

Yet despite these warnings, rather than creating distance between yourself and the QAnon theory, you have seemingly aligned yourself with it and sought to bolster your relationship to the QAnon-adherent community. In fact, you have made over 50 appearances on podcasts where you have promoted the QAnon movement or shared QAnon-related conspiracy information, including appearing on a podcast known for championing the QAnon theory.[10] And, in 2022, you inscribed copies of your books with a QAnon slogan and used the same phrase on a podcast.[11] When asked if you subscribed to the theory, you said "I disagree with a lot of what that movement says, but I agree with what a lot of that movement says."[12]

Moreover, you have not hesitated to exploit your ties to the QAnon movement. In 2022, as you served on the board of the parent company for Truth Social, President-Elect Trump's social media platform, you promoted an account called "@Q" and said about Truth Social's overtures to QAnon that "[you] try to incorporate it into [y]our overall messaging scheme to capture audiences."[13] About the theory itself, you said "[t]here's a lot of good to a lot of it."[14]

False Claims Regarding January 6, 2021

Particularly concerning for someone nominated to lead the FBI, you have also promoted the unsupported claim that government agents instigated the insurrection on January 6, 2021 in an effort to discredit President-Elect Trump and the MAGA movement.[15] Specifically, you called for an investigation into why an alleged undercover government agent "was allowed to encourage and incite a riot in and around some events of January 6^th."[16] There are simply no facts that support this allegation.

Despite your nomination to one of this nation's highest law enforcement positions, your rhetoric and actions suggest you believe the people who conducted the Capitol riot, including those who viciously assaulted law enforcement officers from the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department who were defending the Capitol, should escape accountability. You claim to have provided, via your foundation, financial support for the legal defense of "defamed American citizens" including January 6^th rioters.[17] You have falsely alleged misconduct against the bipartisan U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capitol, saying "[m]embers of Congress can't hide behind the speech and debate clause for committing felonies when it comes to destroying and suppressing evidence to law enforcement agencies" and calling for a "full-fledged investigation."[18]

The Director of the FBI must be committed to truth, not baseless and politically motivated conspiracies. Based on these concerns, I request answers to the following questions:

1. If confirmed as Director of the FBI, will you recommend or support prohibiting the FBI from combatting the spread of misinformation by foreign adversaries?

1. Are you a believer in the QAnon conspiracy theory?
   1. Please identify the specific statements by the QAnon movement that you were referring to when you stated: "I disagree with a lot of what that movement says, but I agree with what a lot of that movement says."[19]
   1. Please describe the aspects of the QAnon theory that you had in mind when you stated that "[t]here's a lot of good to a lot of it." [20]

1. If confirmed as Director of the FBI, will you commit to combatting all forms of domestic violent extremism, including the threats posed by adherents to QAnon?

1. If confirmed as Director of the FBI, will you commit to continuing the ongoing investigations into the perpetrators of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol?
   1. Please provide a list of the January 6, 2021 investigations you will support and those you plan to recommend the closing of if confirmed as Director of the FBI. Please include your justification for each.

1. Do you believe that the FBI or other government actors instigated the insurrection at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021?
   1. If so, please provide all facts and information that underlie that conclusion.

Damage to the FBI and its Efficacy

You have consistently vocalized an antagonism towards the Bureau's work and workforce. If you act consistent with these views when empowered to lead the Bureau, I fear you will impair its ability to perform investigations and safeguard our country. Even your very nomination, coming in the middle of the current Director's 10-year term, breaks from post-Watergate practice and has drawn bipartisan criticism.[21]

In your book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, you aver that members of the "deep state" are "the most dangerous threat to our democracy" and serve as a "cabal of unelected tyrants."[22] The "deep state," per your book, is made up of a variety of actors: politicians, journalists, Big Tech leaders, and individuals associated with non-governmental organizations.[23] In your words, however, the "most dogged" are "officials within the executive branch itself-members of the unelected federal bureaucracy who think they have the right to rule America."[24] It comes as no surprise, therefore, that you believe that "[o]ne of the most cunning and powerful arms of the Deep State is the Federal Bureau of Investigation." [25]

Your open hostility to the FBI would have a devastating impact on the Bureau's workforce, and therefore its ability to "protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States."[26] Your book calls for the "comprehensive housecleaning" of the Bureau and the firing of its "top ranks." [27] You have said you intend to essentially shut down the Bureau's headquarters and "open it up the next day as a museum to the deep state."[28] And you also support stripping security clearances from personnel who staffed investigations involving President-Elect Trump, including "everybody that participated at the FBI in Russia-gate."[29]

As the nation's primary federal law enforcement agency, the Bureau is responsible for investigations in areas as diverse as white-collar crime, child exploitation, public corruption, counterterrorism, counterespionage, and drug trafficking. It needs a Director capable of spearheading a broad array of investigations while simultaneously managing a workforce of thousands and a budget of billions-not one who believes it is staffed by unelected would-be dictators that need to be expelled.[30] Your comments make clear that your FBI would be one in which experience is a drawback, rather than an advantage, and highly competent, qualified agents and other personnel would be removed in favor of loyalists.

Indeed, your potential leadership has already done tangible-not merely hypothetical-damage to the Bureau. Since the announcement of your nomination, reporting has revealed many longtime FBI agents intend to retire should you be confirmed and others have already done so in preparation for your leadership.[31] You would inherit a Bureau bereft of their years of experience and expertise. Perhaps you would consider this potential exodus an efficient start to the "comprehensive housecleaning" for which you have called.[32] I, on the other hand, find it deeply concerning for the safety and security of the American people.

Based on these concerns, I request answers to the following questions:

1. In your book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, you wrote that "[o]ne of the most cunning and powerful arms of the Deep State is the Federal Bureau of Investigation." [33] Please explain what aspects of the FBI you believe qualify as components of the so-called "deep state."

1. Do you believe the FBI serves an important function in this country?

1. 1. Please describe that function.
      
      
2. If you are confirmed as Director of the FBI, what will you do to prevent a mass exodus of long-serving, experienced agents who are disturbed by your history of denigrating their work and the Bureau?
   1. What will you do to support recruitment of new qualified agents?

1. Will you commit to conducting recruitment of new agents and other Bureau personnel in a non-partisan manner and without imposing ideological litmus tests?

Threats to Target Political Enemies, Judges, and Journalists

You have professed an intent to use your authority as Director to target political enemies, judges, and journalists in pursuit of political and personal vendettas. This leaves me deeply concerned that you may not possess the judgment, integrity, and qualifications to serve in this role. The Director of the FBI must act with the utmost political independence and integrity-a person prepared to use the Bureau to effectuate President-Elect Trump's threats of political retribution and wage personal vendettas is simply not qualified to serve as the Director of the FBI.

Political Figures

The FBI's long-standing independence from electoral politics is based in law and the norms and practices that have emerged within the Executive Branch over the past half century.[34] Since the Watergate scandal in 1972, presidents of both parties, including President-Elect Trump in his first term, have enacted policies to preserve the independence of both the Department of Justice (the "DOJ") and the FBI from the White House.[35] Every administration from President Carter to President Biden-including President-Elect Trump in his first term-has restricted communications between the DOJ, including the FBI, and the White House regarding law enforcement investigations and other matters.[36] This has ensured that the FBI has the independence and impartiality to conduct investigations of presidents and top White House officials for alleged unlawful activity where appropriate.[37] And, to be clear, this has been true whether the focus of the investigation was a Democrat or Republican. Notably, in July 2015-during a Democratic administration-the FBI began investigating alleged actions of the then-presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic party.[38]

You have made a number of comments in multiple fora that suggest you would actively seek to undermine the political independence of the FBI if you served as Director. As previously mentioned, you wrote in your book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, that members of the "deep state" are "the most dangerous threat to our democracy" and serve as a "cabal of unelected tyrants."[39] In that book, you also published a list of so-called "Members of the Executive Branch Deep State," which identified 60 current and former officials by name-both top Democratic politicians and officials, as well as former Trump Administration officials who are no longer supportive of the President-Elect, such as Former Attorney General William Barr and Former National Security Advisor John Bolton.[40] Furthermore, you acknowledged that this list was not exhaustive and did not include "other corrupt actors of the first order"-including now-Senator Adam Schiff and other members of Congress.[41]

You have also demonstrated a clear intent to pursue prosecutions of political opponents if President-Elect Trump tells you to do so. During a rally featuring President-Elect Trump, you said to the audience that "[w]e are on a mission to annihilate the deep state."[42] In reference to a number of people on your enemies list, including President Biden, Vice President Harris, and outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray, you said "these people need to go to prison."[43] And in a 2023 podcast interview with Steven Bannon, you confirmed your confidence in being able to bring about prosecutions against members of the "deep state" during a second Trump administration, saying that:

The one thing we learned in the Trump Administration the first go-around is we've got to put in all-American patriots top to bottom, and we got them for law enforcement, we got them for intel[ligence] collection, we got them for offensive operations, we got them for DOD, CIA, everywhere.[44]

Journalists, Lawyers, and Judges

Moreover, your pledges of retribution have not been limited to political figures. You have also vowed to target journalists, lawyers, and judges who have been opposed to President-Elect Trump-those you have falsely labeled as so-called "conspirators" who "helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections."[45] Indeed, your conception of members of the "deep state" and "conspirators" appears to include any person who you have deemed influential and who has opposed your favored political official.

In the same deeply concerning 2023 podcast interview with Steve Bannon, you pledged that, should President-Elect Trump be reelected, you would "go out and find the conspirators-not just in government, but in the media," saying that "we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens" and "correct these justices and lawyers who've been prosecuting these cases based on politics."[46]

The Director of the FBI has a duty to investigate criminal wrongdoing and protect this country-not to pursue political or personal vendettas. Your past comments and writings reveal a willingness and enthusiasm to use the Bureau as a tool in President-Elect Trump's retribution campaign that is entirely inconsistent with its mission as a nonpartisan law enforcement and national security agency. Without a Director willing to enforce independence from the President and adhere to integrity over politics, the Bureau will fail in its mission to "protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States."[47]

Given these concerns, I request answers to the following questions:

1. Do you agree that the FBI must remain independent of the presidency? If confirmed as FBI Director, do you commit to ensuring the Bureau's investigations are driven by provable facts and evidence and not political or personal vendettas?

1. In your book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, you wrote that the "deep state" is "the most dangerous threat to our democracy."[48] Please explain what you meant.

1. In your book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, you provided a list titled "Members of the Executive Branch Deep State."[49] Please state whether you will support or recommend investigations into each and explain your reasoning.

1. At an October 2024 rally for President-Elect Trump, you stated "[w]e are on a mission to annihilate the deep state."[50] Please explain what you meant and what steps you intend to take to do so.

1. As noted above, in a December 2023 podcast interview, you pledged that, should President-Elect Trump be reelected, you would "go out and find the conspirators-not just in government, but in the media," If confirmed as Director of the FBI, will you recommend or support investigations into journalists who have published stories critical of President-Elect Trump or questioned his claim that he won the 2020 election?

Financial Conflicts of Interest

Also troubling is your years-long history of receiving income directly from President-Elect Trump. A June 17, 2024 public filing revealed that you were a Director on the Board of Trump Media and Technology Group,[51] which owns Truth Social. The filing stated that your company, Trishul, LLC, received $50,000 in 2022 and $130,000 in 2023 from Trump Media and Technology Group. Another filing reported that you "serve[d] as a national security adviser to Donald J. Trump as a private citizen and receive[d] payment for such services from Save America PAC," which is affiliated with President-Elect Trump.[52]

You have made it clear through your rhetoric and actions that you are loyal to President-Elect Trump over law and facts. You stated at the Conservative Political Action Conference "[w]e're blessed by God to have Donald Trump be our juggernaut of justice, to be our leader, to be our continued warrior in the arena."[53] An FBI Director must be committed first and foremost to the truth-not to a politician or ideology. Your financial ties to President-Elect Trump only deepen my concerns regarding your nomination. Given these concerns, please answer the following questions:

1. Please provide a list of the companies and organizations associated with President-Elect Trump, directly or indirectly, from which you have received income for the past ten years.

1. If confirmed as Director of the FBI, will you commit to divesting yourself financially from President-Elect Trump and all companies and organizations associated with him?

Conclusion

I am deeply concerned by the variety of ways your comments and actions suggest you are unfit to lead the FBI.

In his memoir, Former Attorney General Barr-who led the DOJ under President Trump-wrote that you "had virtually no experience that would qualify [you] to serve at the highest level of the world's preeminent law enforcement agency."[54] Your actions and rhetoric since you worked with Former Attorney General Barr appear only to confirm his concerns and demonstrate a disregard for both law enforcement and the law, an affinity for debunked and baseless conspiracy theories, and a desire to use the Bureau as a tool of political retribution.

I request that you come to your Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing prepared to answer these questions and expect you to provide written answers no later than January 23, 2025.

Sincerely,

-30-

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Tweet