By Jeremy Roebuck, Perry Stein · The Washington Post (c) 2025
A top Democratic leader weighing Kash Patel’s nomination for FBI director accused him Tuesday of directing a purge of career officials and later perjuring himself in Senate testimony by saying he had no knowledge of any plans for dismissals.
In a publicly released letter, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said he’d received “highly credible information from multiple sources” that Patel, whose nomination faces a vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, provided top Justice Department leaders a list last month with the names of executives he wanted forced out of the senior FBI posts.
“It is unacceptable for a nominee with no current role in government, much less at the FBI, to personally direct unjustified and potentially illegal adverse employment actions against senior career FBI leadership and other, dedicated nonpartisan law enforcement officers,” Durbin wrote in the letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
Durbin did not elaborate on where his information had come from, and a spokesperson for Patel dismissed the allegationsas “second-hand gossip.”
Patel appears to have enough support from Republicans to be voted out of committee Thursday. His nomination will then advance to the full Senate.
The letter fromDurbin, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, detailed a Jan. 29 meeting between the FBI’s acting director Brian Driscoll and members of a newly created FBI Director’s Advisory Team who arrived with that list of names.
Durbin said the list“was seen by multiple FBI leaders” who understood it to be a collection of “people in the crosshairs.”
The senator also said he’d reviewed notes taken duringa meeting earlier that same day between top FBI leadership and acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove, who has emerged as a key figure in the staffing shake-ups that have roiled the Justice Department and the bureau since President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Bove, according to Durbin, told the meeting attendees that he’d received multiple phone calls the night before from Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, urging the swift removal of employees who Patel had targeted for termination.
“KP wants movement at FBI,” one attendee purportedly wrote in the notesDurbin reviewed.
“According to my sources, Mr. Patel is receiving information from within the FBI” from a member of the director’s advisory team, the senator wrote in his letter to Horowitz Tuesday. “Mr. Patel then provides direction to Mr. Miller, who relays it to Acting Deputy Attorney General Bove. Each DAT member had represented to one or more officials at the bureau at some point before January 30 that they had been in direct contact with Mr. Patel.”
The Post has reported that within hours of those Jan. 29 meetings, at least eight senior FBI executives, including the head of the bureau’s Washington field office, were informed that they had just days to choose to retire or be fired.
Patel sat for his confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee the next day. In response to questions from Democratic lawmakers, he denied any knowledge of plans to punish or fire FBI investigators who had run afoul of Trump.
“I don’t know what’s going on right now over there,” he said, assuring senators that any discipline he might mete out as FBI director would follow standard bureau protocols.
Durbin highlighted Patel’s statements at that hearing in his letter Tuesday and urged the Justice Department’s inspector general to swiftly investigate anyinvolvement Patel may have had in the firing of senior officials
The FBI and the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office declined to comment on Durbin’s letter Tuesday.
Erica Knight, a spokesperson for Patel, balked at Durbin’s claims.
“Kash Patel is a highly qualified national security expert who has been fully transparent with the American people,” she said in a statement.