What The Hell America!

As the U.S. Senate headed toward a likely vote to confirm Kashyap “Kash” Patel, a conspiracy theorist and loyalist to President Donald Trump, to lead the FBI, a government watchdog warned the vote will serve as “a historic test” of Republican lawmakers’ priorities as it called for the release of a special counsel report that could reveal “critical information” about the nominee.

Accountable.US demanded that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia allow the release of the second volume of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on Trump’s handling of classified documents after he was voted out of office in 2020.

The report, said the group Wednesday, may show that Patel misled the public with his claim that Trump declassified documents before leaving office. Trump said after government documents were found at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, that the papers had been appropriately declassified—a claim several of his administration officials said was baseless but which Patel quickly tried to corroborate.

“No evidence has emerged to support Mr. Patel’s claim,” reportedThe New York Times in January. “No written blanket declassification order—or any written contemporaneous reference to any such oral order—has ever surfaced. And nobody communicated to national security officials any records or information that they should now treat as declassified.”

Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida barred the Department of Justice (DOJ) last month from releasing the second volume of Smith’s report, and rejected a motion filed by the watchdog group American Oversight last week calling on her to reverse the order.

With a separate case filed by American Oversight in the D.C. District Court, arguing that portions of the report should be released under the Freedom of Information Act, Accountable.US said Wednesday that the court “must allow the special counsel’s report to be swiftly released before the Senate votes on Kash Patel’s nomination.”

“With Kash Patel’s confirmation vote looming, Trump’s DOJ and a Trump-appointed judge are standing in the way of the release of critical information which would shine a light on Patel’s ability to serve as FBI director,” said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US. “Kash Patel has a dangerous track record of putting his loyalty to Trump before our national security, and the U.S. senators and the American public deserve to know where his allegiances would stand if confirmed.”

“Patel’s vote should be held until Americans can read [the special counsel report] for themselves,” Carrk added.

In addition to Patel’s unverified claims about the security of secret government documents, Accountable.US on Wednesday catalogued numerous other “reasons for disqualification,” including the millions of dollars he amassed doing consulting work for a Czech arms company and other foreign entities; his threat to “come after people in the media”; his alleged perjury during his confirmation hearings regarding reports that he had given orders to fire FBI officials without having the authority to do so; and his profiteering off false claims that Trump won the 2020 election, which he has peddled to children in the form of a book titled The Plot Against The King: 2000 Mules.

“Kash Patel is not just uniquely unqualified to serve as FBI director, he shouldn’t even be allowed in the building,” said Carrk. “There’s clearly no limit to where Patel will go to make a quick buck for himself and friends, including selling election denial propaganda to children and consulting for sketchy companies linked to forced labor and foreign adversaries.”

Ahead of the expected Senate vote, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee held a press conference outside the FBI headquarters to warn that if confirmed, Patel would “misuse the resources of the bureau” and “weaponize the FBI against the president’s opponents.”

“Kash Patel, mark my words, will cause evil in this building behind us,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). “And Republicans who vote for him will rue that day.”

On Thursday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced she would vote against Patel’s confirmation, saying his “political profile undermines his ability to serve in the apolitical role of director of the FBI.”

Carrk said that “it should not take courage for Senate Republicans to reject Patel as a dangerously dishonest and unqualified choice for FBI head who will make the nation less safe and more vulnerable to foreign influence.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Patel would “be a political and national security disaster if confirmed,” and noted that the Trump administration has plans to purge the FBI’s ranks of thousands of agents who have investigated Trump supporters’ violent riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Agents have filed a lawsuit to bar the DOJ from releasing the names of people who worked on the investigation, to avoid retaliation from Trump.

“Mr. Patel has been open about his plans to dismantle the FBI and seek retribution,” said Durbin. “His directives as a private citizen have already thrown the bureau into chaos.”

He called on Senate Republicans to “do publicly what they have told agents they want to do, and that is vote against Kash Patel.”

“What is at stake,” he said, “is the future of the FBI.”