SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
President Trump's nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, has spent the past few years as a fierce critic of federal law enforcement. He's even proposed closing the FBI building and turning it into a museum for the deep state. Patel's confirmation hearing was today on Capitol Hill, and Democrats asked him about that provocative suggestion and had many other questions. NPR's justice correspondent Carrie Johnson followed the confirmation hearing, and she's with us now in the studio to tell us what she heard. Hi, Carrie.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Hi there.
PFEIFFER: What did Kash Patel say about his priorities for the FBI?
JOHNSON: He says he wants to focus on fighting terrorism and violent crime, preventing the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs and to give the good cops the leeway to do their jobs. Patel talked about his 16 years in public service as a public defender, a prosecutor, a national security aide, but he really has a lot less legal and management experience than most of the previous eight FBI directors. And in the first Trump administration, then-Attorney General Bill Barr said Patel was unqualified and would get a job at the FBI over his dead body.
PFEIFFER: Patel is considered a loyal ally to President Trump, but traditionally, there has been expected to be a separation between the White House and the FBI, so the loyalty, you wonder how that will - will the separation be honored? How did Patel respond to questions about that today?
JOHNSON: Well, in 2023, he wrote a book called "Government Gangsters" that included the names of 60 people he said were part of the deep state, and that got Senate Democrats really worried that Kash Patel would use the enormous power of the FBI to go after Donald Trump's political enemies. Here's how Patel responded today.
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KASH PATEL: I have no interest, no desire and will not, if confirmed, go backwards. There will be no politicization at the FBI. There will be no retributive actions taken by any FBI should I be confirmed as the FBI director.
JOHNSON: And other Democrats asked whether Patel knew about any plans to fire FBI agents who investigated Trump. He said no. There's only one political appointee at the FBI - that's the director - but Democrats suggested there's already been a break with that long tradition to bring into the bureau people with ties to Patel, Donald Trump and the billionaire Elon Musk.
PFEIFFER: I understand there was one area where Kash Patel seemed to break with President Trump. Tell us about that.
JOHNSON: It was January 6. On his first day in office, Trump pardoned or shortened the prison terms for more than 1,500 people charged with crimes in the attack on the U.S. Capitol four years ago. That includes rioters who beat police with bats and flagpoles and bear spray. Here's what Kash Patel had to say about those clemencies.
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PATEL: I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement.
PFEIFFER: And Patel has had a history of supporting some of those defendants, which is why January 6 was such a key thing to discuss today.
JOHNSON: That's exactly right. Patel helped promote a song by what's been called the J6 Choir. That's a group of rioters who had been detained in the same D.C. jail. Here he is talking with Senator Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, about that.
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PATEL: Well, it's not my choir. It's simply a recording that was utilized to raise funds for families in need of nonviolent offenders.
RICHARD DURBIN: Who sings on this recording?
PATEL: I don't know, Senator.
JOHNSON: But Patel is actually listed as a promoter of the choir, and at least five of the members pleaded guilty to attacking police. One of them sprayed Officer Brian Sicknick with chemicals. That officer died the next day after suffering a stroke.
PFEIFFER: Carrie, any sense of Patel's prospects in the Senate?
JOHNSON: Republicans have the votes if they all stick together, and all the Republicans on the committee today seemed in line with Kash Patel.
PFEIFFER: That's NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson. Thanks, Carrie. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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