Patel faces congressional hearings after missteps in Kirk assassination
probe and turmoil at FBI
[September 13, 2025]
By ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hours after the assassination of conservative activist
Charlie Kirk, FBI Director Kash Patel declared online that “the subject”
in the killing was in custody. The shooter was not. The two men who had
been detained were quickly released, and Utah officials acknowledged
that the gunman remained at large.
The false assurance was more than a slip. It spotlighted the high-stakes
uncertainty surrounding Patel’s leadership of the bureau when its
credibility — and his own — are under extraordinary pressure.
Patel now approaches congressional oversight hearings this coming week
facing not just questions about that investigation but broader doubts
about whether he can stabilize a federal law enforcement agency
fragmented by political fights and internal upheaval.
Democrats are poised to press Patel on a purge of senior executives that
has prompted a lawsuit, his pursuit of President Donald Trump’s
grievances long after the Russia investigation ended, and a realignment
of resources that has prioritized the fight against illegal immigration
and street crime even though the agency has for decades been defined by
its work on complicated threats like counterintelligence and corruption.
That’s in addition to questions about the handling of files from the
Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case, the addition of a co-deputy
director to serve alongside Dan Bongino, and the use of polygraphs on
some agents in recent months to identify sources of leaks. Republicans,
meanwhile, are likely to rally to his defense or redirect the spotlight
toward the bureau’s critics.
The hearings will offer Patel his most consequential stage yet, and
perhaps the clearest test of whether he can convince the country that
the FBI, under his watch, can avoid compounding its mistakes in a time
of political violence and deepening distrust.
“Because of the skepticism that some members of the Senate have had and
still have, it's extremely important that he perform very well at these
oversight hearings” on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Gregory Brower, a
former FBI executive who served as its top congressional affairs
official.
The FBI declined to comment about Patel's coming testimony to the
committee.
He claimed the subject was ‘in custody’
Kirk's killing was always going to be a closely scrutinized
investigation, not only because it was the latest burst of political
violence inside the United States but also because of Kirk's friendships
with Trump, Patel and other administration figures and allies.
While agents from Salt Lake City investigated, Patel posted on X that
“the subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of
Charlie Kirk is now in custody.” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said at a
near-contemporaneous news conference that “Whoever we did this, we will
find you,” suggesting authorities were still searching. Patel soon after
posted that the person in custody had been released.
“That does not deliver the message that you want the public to hear,”
said Chris O'Leary, a retired FBI counterterrorism executive. “It had
the opposite effect. People start to wonder what is going in. This looks
like the Keystone Cops and it continues to get worse.”
The next day, a scheduled afternoon news conference was canceled for
“rapid developments” as Patel and Bongino flew to Utah. It was held
instead in the evening. Patel appeared but did not speak.
As the search stretched on for over a day, Patel vented on a call with
FBI personnel Thursday about what he perceived as a failure to keep him
informed, including that he was not quickly shown a photograph of the
suspected shooter. That's according to two people familiar with the
matter who were not authorized to discuss it by name and spoke on
condition of anonymity to The Associated Press. The New York Times
earlier reported details of the call.
On Friday morning, authorities announced the arrest at a news conference
where Patel claimed credit for certain investigative steps, saying that,
“At my direction, the FBI released the first set of FBI photos.”
Asked about the scrutiny of his performance, the FBI issued a statement
saying that it had worked with local law enforcement to bring the
suspected shooter, Tyler Robinson, to justice and “will continue to be
transparent with the American people.”
Patel's overall response did not go unnoticed in conservative circles.
One prominent strategist, Christopher Rufo, posted on X that it was
“time for Republicans to assess whether Kash Patel is the right man to
run the FBI.”
Then there's the personnel purge
On the same day Kirk was killed, Patel faced a separate problem: a
lawsuit from three FBI senior executives fired in an August purge that
wiped away decades of institutional experience and that they
characterized as a Trump administration retribution campaign.
Among those fired was Brian Driscoll, who as acting FBI director in the
early days of the Trump administration resisted Justice Department
demands for names of agents who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at
the Capitol. Driscoll alleged in the lawsuit that he was let go after
clashing with Patel over administration demands to fire an FBI pilot
who'd been wrongly identified on social media as the case agent in the
classified documents investigation of Trump.
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Kash Patel speaks at a news conference, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, in
Orem, Utah, as Utah department of public safety commissioner Beau
Mason, left, and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox listen. (AP Photo/Lindsey
Wasson)
The lawsuit quotes Patel as having told Driscoll his job depended on
firing people the White House wanted gone. The FBI has declined to
comment on the lawsuit.
The other plaintiffs are Spencer Evans, a former top agent in Las
Vegas whose termination letter cited a “lack of reasonableness and
overzealousness” in implementing COVID-19 policies as a human
resources official — a claim his lawyers call false — and Steve
Jensen, who helped oversee FBI investigations into the Jan. 6.
Capitol riot.
The upheaval continues a trend that began before Patel took over,
when more than a half-dozen senior executives were forced out under
a Justice Department rationale that they could not be “trusted” to
implement Trump's agenda.
There's since been significant turnover in leadership at the FBI's
55 field offices. Some left because of promotions and planned
retirements, but others because of ultimatums to resign or accept
new assignments. The head of the Salt Lake City office, an
experienced counterterrorism investigator, was pushed out of her
position weeks before Kirk was killed at a Utah college, said people
familiar with the move.
In July, an agent based in Norfolk, Virginia, Michael Feinberg,
authored a first-person account saying he was told to brace for a
demotion and a polygraph exam because of his friendship with Peter
Strzok , a lead FBI agent in the investigation into ties between
Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign fired over derogatory text messages
sent about Trump. Feinberg resigned.
FBI's priorities shift under Patel
Patel arrived at the FBI having been a sharp critic of its
leadership, including for inquiries into Trump that he says
politicized the institution. Under Patel and Attorney General Pam
Bondi, the FBI and Justice Department have become entangled in their
own politically fraught investigations, such as the one into New
York Attorney General Letitia James.
He's moved quickly to remake the bureau, with the FBI and Justice
Department working to investigate one of the Republican president's
chief grievances — the years-old Trump-Russia investigation. Trump
calls that probe, which did not establish a criminal conspiracy
between Russia and Trump’s campaign, a “hoax" and “witch hunt."
The Justice Department appeared to confirm in an unusual statement
that it was investigating former FBI Director James Comey and former
CIA Director John Brennan, pivotal players in the Russia saga listed
by Patel in a book he authored as “members of the Executive Branch
Deep State,” but did not say for what. Bondi has directed that
evidence be presented to a grand jury, and agents and prosecutors
have begun requesting information and interviews from former
officials related to the investigation, according to multiple people
familiar with the outreach.
Critics of the fresh Russia inquiry consider it a transparent
attempt to turn the page from the fierce backlash the FBI and
Justice Department endured from elements of Trump's base following
their July announcement that they would not be releasing any
additional documents from the Epstein investigation.
Patel has meanwhile elevated the fight against street crime, drug
trafficking and illegal immigration to the top of the FBI's agenda,
in alignment with Trump's agenda.
The FBI has been key to the federal government's takeover of the
Washington police department, participating with partner agencies in
arrests for crimes, like drunken driving, not historically thought
of as central FBI priorities.
The bureau makes no apologies for aggressive policing in American
cities the Trump administration contends have been consumed by
crime. Patel and Bongino have been promoting the number of arrests
involving federal law enforcement in an initiative they dub
Operation Summer Heat. Patel says the thousands of cumulative
arrests, many of them immigration-related, are “what happens when
you let good cops be good cops.”
But some are concerned the street crime focus could draw attention
from the sophisticated public corruption and national security
threats for which the bureau has long been primarily, if not solely,
responsible for investigating. In one example, a federal corruption
squad in Washington was disbanded this past spring.
“One of the big problems that I see is that the investigative
programs that have been hurt the most this year are the ones that
really only the FBI does, or the FBI does better than anybody else,”
said Matt DeSarno, who retired in 2022 as head of the Dallas field
office.
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