Congress should think twice about Kash Patel to lead the FBI

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/10/kash-patel-fbi-trust/

The Senate Judiciary Committee is poised to advance Kash Patel’s nomination to become director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a party-line vote. Yet four Republican senators could still join with Democrats on the floor to block the confirmation — and prevent the considerable damage Patel stands to inflict on the country’s premier law enforcement agency.

Although presidents generally deserve deference on their nominees, Patel has repeatedly shown himself unfit to direct the FBI. He appears eager to seek retribution against President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies, including those inside the bureau, Republican critics, the news media and alumni from the first Trump administration. The 44-year-old has promised to “come after the people … who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections … whether it’s criminally or civilly.” He has called for shutting down FBI headquarters in Washington, reopening the building as a museum of the “deep state,” and dispersing investigators into the field.

What’s most concerning is Patel’s previously professed desire to target people such as Christopher A. Wray, whom he has unfairly accused of breaking the law. The former director, appointed by Trump in 2017, resigned last month rather than wait for Trump to fire him. At his confirmation hearing, Patel said: “I have no interest, no desire, and will not, if confirmed, go backwards.” But he left himself wiggle room: “If anyone commits a wrong in government service,” he said, “the American public deserve to know the absolute secular detail of that corrupt activity.”