WATCH: Sen. Schiff Blasts Kash Patel’s Firing of FBI Officials Investigating Cases Against Trump and January 6 Insurrectionists, Calls Out Attacks on Media

Washington, D.C. - Today, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) blasted Kash Patel, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), for his widespread mismanagement and politicization of the nation's foremost law enforcement agency.

Schiff pressed Patel on the Trump administration's firing of FBI agents working on the investigations into President Donald Trump's role in the January 6 insurrection and his mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, as well as the FBI's investigation of members of the media under Patel's leadership.

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Key Excerpts:

On Patel's refusal to admit termination of FBI employees was motivated by political retribution:

Schiff: Mr. Patel, there were at least two major investigations of President Trump in the previous Justice Department. One that investigated his role in the violent attack on the Capitol and the incitement of that attack. Another investigation that investigated his purloining of hundreds of classified documents, their storage in his place at Mar-a-Lago, efforts to obstruct the investigation. Those two investigations were properly predicated. Those investigations resulted in grand juries bringing, returning indictments, charging the president numerous times with serious felony offenses. I have questions for you today about the agents who worked on those investigations. Let me first start with a simple numeric question: How many agents, FBI agents, were used in the investigation of the Mar-a-Lago documents case against the president? About how many?

Patel: I have no idea. I wasn't here then.

Schiff: Would it have been dozens?

Patel: I don't know. You'd have to ask the prior administration.

Schiff: Well, a lot of those people were fired under your directorship, were they not?

Patel: I don't think a lot of them, but a lot of them retired, and some of the ones that weaponized law enforcement were terminated, as they always will be.

Schiff: So, can you pull the microphone close? We're having trouble hearing you. Might want to pull the whole thing closer to you. So, are you testifying today that you don't know if they were fired, or maybe some of them were fired, or many were fired? What's your testimony? How many of them were fired?

Patel: My testimony is I don't know the personnel actions that were taken by the prior administration and the personnel actions -

Schiff: You know what, I'm talking about your administration.

Patel: I'm getting there. The personnel actions that were taken by me are simply as follows: nobody at the FBI, as they've committed to, is allowed to participate in the weaponization of law enforcement -

Schiff: That's not my question. How many of the agents who worked on Mar-a-Lago investigation of Donald Trump how many of them -

Patel: I don't have that number.

Schiff: - were fired by the FBI?

Patel: I don't know.

Schiff: Are any of them still working for the FBI?

Patel: I don't have that number. That's not my responsibility.

Schiff: Well, that's not - I'm not asking for a number now. Are any of the agents who worked on the Mar-a-Lago investigation of the president still employed at the FBI?

Patel: I don't believe so. Most of them left.

Schiff: Okay, so you don't believe any of the agents who worked on that investigation are still at the FBI?

Patel: I can't stop them from retiring.

Schiff: Is it your testimony that they're not at the FBI because they retired, not because they were fired?

Patel: My understanding is the overwhelming majority of those agents and FBI personnel retired.

Schiff: Well, let me ask you this: Todd Blanche at a CPAC conference says, "and when it comes to the FBI, Director Patel has cleaned house there too. There isn't a single man or woman with a gun, federal agent still in that organization, that had anything to do with the prosecution of President Trump." So, the Attorney General says you cleaned house at the FBI.

Patel: I did.

Schiff: Was he right? Was he truthful when he said there's not a single agent at the FBI who worked on the Mar-a-Lago investigation, still employed by the FBI?

Patel: The Attorney General is always truthful, so I believe his statement.

Schiff: Okay, so they're all gone. Is your testimony today that most of those agents are no longer with the FBI because they decided suddenly to retire?

Patel: Yeah.

Schiff: They weren't fired in whole or in part because they worked on that investigation?

Patel: The bulk of individuals that worked on those investigations left shortly thereafter -

Schiff: And they left voluntarily?

Patel: In the prior administration.

Schiff: I'm talking about under your watch, Director Patel.

Patel: They left before I got there. There's really nothing I can do.

Schiff: So, it's your testimony that most of them voluntarily left the bureau? They weren't fired.

Patel: Most of them, yeah.

Schiff: And is the same true of the agents who investigated the president's involvement in January 6? How many - well, first of all, how many agents would you say that would be? Would it be dozens or hundreds of agents?

Patel: I don't know. You'd have to ask the prior administration. They were in charge of that.

Schiff: You have no idea whether it is over 100 agents?

Patel: No, my focus is not going back in time. My focus is crushing violent crime and defending the homeland and - results for the American people.

Schiff: My question is: were those agents, as Todd Blanche indicated, also purged from the FBI under your watch because they had worked on the January 6th investigation?

Patel: The FBI has one specific and simple standard. If you don't meet our high standards -

Schiff: That's not my question.

Patel: I'm getting there. If you don't meet those standards, you don't get to work at the FBI.

Schiff: Take a little less time to get there, if you would. Were they purged because they worked on the January 6th investigation of the president?

Patel: There was no purging, and there are individuals who worked on a whole host of investigations.

Schiff: Were any of those agents fired?

Patel: Many retired.

Schiff: Excuse me. Excuse me. Let me finish the question.

Patel: Go ahead.

Schiff: Were any of the agents who worked on the Mar-a-Lago investigation or the January 6 investigation, were any of those agents fired in whole or in part because they worked on those investigations?

Patel: So, the simple fact of working on those investigations, no. If they weaponize law enforcement, yes.

Schiff: So, all of the agents who just happened to work on those investigations and were fired - is it your testimony that's because they were engaged in some other malfeasance, other than simply being assigned to those two cases?

Patel: There's an entire inspection division at the FBI that looked at the totality of not just these agents and employees but everyone on a constant basis and they make recommendations.

Schiff: But my question is very specific, Mr. Patel.

Patel: I'm answering your question.

Schiff: Well, I haven't heard the answer, so I'm going to try again.

Patel: Go ahead.

Schiff: Of all the probably hundreds of agents who worked on those two investigations of the president. Those hundreds of agents, maybe thousands, that your Attorney General says are gone from the FBI. Is it your testimony that none of them were fired solely for working on those investigations?

Patel: All FBI personnel, those matters or others, are held to the same standard. You don't meet it, you don't get to work at the FBI.

Schiff: So, it's your testimony that none of them were fired, in whole or in part because they worked on those investigations.

Patel: I've answered the question.

Schiff: Is that answer a yes?

Patel: I've answered the question.

Schiff: I don't think you have.

Patel: Okay.

On future congressional investigations and preserving future records:

Schiff: But I can understand why you wouldn't want to. The FBI is being sued for wrongful termination, and I will remind you, director, because you probably need reminding, that while this Congress is not going to investigate the wrongful termination of potentially hundreds of agents for working on properly predicated investigations, the next Congress will. And you have an obligation as FBI director to ensure that none of the personnel files, none of the emails, none of the voicemails, none of the text messages are destroyed. You will preserve those records, will you not?

Patel: We preserve all records. We're not the ones that deleted records.

Schiff: We will hold you to that.

Patel: The ones that deleted records are the prior administration.

On attacks against the media:

Schiff: Let me ask you another question. I want to read you a statement that you made about the press. This was in 2024, when you said that the mainstream media was "the most powerful enemy that the United States has ever seen." Do you stand by that?

Patel: Your colleagues put that on full display here today.

Schiff: Do you stand by that?

Patel: I'm answering the question. Your colleagues put that on full display by hacking around the same lies and personal basis attacks -

Schiff: No, no, no, no. This is your comment -

Patel: And that's what makes the majority of the mainstream media.[…]

Schiff: […]Do you stand by your statement?

Patel: I always do.

Schiff: So, is it your view then that the media is a greater enemy than Iran?

Patel: That's not what I said. I said the media that participates in lying, like you do, and the baseless attacks on me and my personnel, my loved ones, is the most harmful institution to the United States of America because you don't want to tell the truth.

Schiff: This mainstream media that you're accusing of lying, you're talking about the New York Times. Are they part of the enemy?

Patel: I mean, I'm talking about the ones that you said are -

Schiff: Excuse me. Are you talking about the New York Times?[…]. Mr. Patel, let me ask you specifically about some of your attacks on the media. Mr. Booker tried to get an answer from you, a very simple answer about the reporter who wrote an article about potential misuse of an FBI SWAT team by himself.

Patel: It didn't happen. Total lie.

Schiff: And what he asked you. So, let me repeat it because you didn't answer his question.

Patel: You're going to repeat a lie, so I'm not going to answer it.

Schiff: […] So my question, Mr. Chairman, is following this New York Times article that alleged that you had abused the FBI SWAT team.

Patel: I just told you it's a lie. So, the basis of your question is a lie.

Schiff: Excuse me. Mr. Chairman, I haven't been able to finish my question. Did you or did you not? Or did anyone else at the FBI query a federal database regarding the New York Times reporter who wrote that story.

Patel: I did not, not to my knowledge.

Schiff: Did anyone at the FBI?

Patel: I have no idea. I don't monitor everything they do.

Schiff: And let me also ask you a similar question about an article 'The FBI director is missing in action.' This was an article in the Atlantic.

Patel: Another total lie, which is why I'm suing Atlantic for $250 million.

Schiff: Mr. Chairman. I'm still trying to ask my questions.

Patel: He's out of time. Are we done?

Schiff: Mr. Chairman?

Grassley: What I'd like to have you do is you ask your questions.

Schiff: I'm trying.

Grassley: And stop, and I want him to respond to you.

Schiff: That is what I'm doing, Mr. Chairman. Okay. So, my question is this, and I'll address this through you to the director. My question is about the reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick, who wrote this article, 'The FBI director is missing in action.' After this article came out, were any FBI resources used to look into this reporter in any way?

Patel: No.

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