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The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday accused Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee for F.B.I. director, of improperly directing a wave of firings at the bureau before being confirmed.
In a letter to the Justice Department’s inspector general, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois cited “highly credible information from multiple sources” that suggested Mr. Patel had been personally involved in covertly orchestrating a purge of career officials at the F.B.I.
In his letter, Mr. Durbin recounted a meeting between Mr. Bove, who has helped spearhead mass firings of Justice Department prosecutors, and F.B.I. leadership. Mr. Bove supposedly told the bureau officials that Stephen Miller, a White House aide, was pressuring him on Mr. Patel’s behalf to move more quickly in firing senior career officials at the bureau.
Mr. Durbin cited verbal accounts from “multiple sources” and quoted what he described as contemporaneous meeting notes as further corroboration. Mr. Durbin’s letter said the notes read: “KP wants movement at FBI, reciprocal actions for DOJ.”
Mr. Durbin did not identify his sources, but from the context, they did not appear to be direct witnesses to interactions involving Mr. Patel or Mr. Miller, but rather people at the F.B.I. who heard, or perhaps heard about, what Mr. Bove had supposedly said.
In Senate testimony last month, Mr. Patel said that he was “not aware” of any Trump administration plans to fire F.B.I. officials associated with investigations into Mr. Trump. Mr. Patel also told the senators, “I don’t know what’s going on right now over there.”
www.nytimes.com
In a letter to the Justice Department’s inspector general, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois cited “highly credible information from multiple sources” that suggested Mr. Patel had been personally involved in covertly orchestrating a purge of career officials at the F.B.I.
In his letter, Mr. Durbin recounted a meeting between Mr. Bove, who has helped spearhead mass firings of Justice Department prosecutors, and F.B.I. leadership. Mr. Bove supposedly told the bureau officials that Stephen Miller, a White House aide, was pressuring him on Mr. Patel’s behalf to move more quickly in firing senior career officials at the bureau.
Mr. Durbin cited verbal accounts from “multiple sources” and quoted what he described as contemporaneous meeting notes as further corroboration. Mr. Durbin’s letter said the notes read: “KP wants movement at FBI, reciprocal actions for DOJ.”
Mr. Durbin did not identify his sources, but from the context, they did not appear to be direct witnesses to interactions involving Mr. Patel or Mr. Miller, but rather people at the F.B.I. who heard, or perhaps heard about, what Mr. Bove had supposedly said.
In Senate testimony last month, Mr. Patel said that he was “not aware” of any Trump administration plans to fire F.B.I. officials associated with investigations into Mr. Trump. Mr. Patel also told the senators, “I don’t know what’s going on right now over there.”
Senator Accuses Kash Patel of Covertly Directing F.B.I. Dismissals
A top Democrat demanded an investigation and suggested that the nominee, Kash Patel, may have lied under oath, citing what he described as multiple sources.
