Rep. Jim Jordan: America Needs Kash Patel at the FBI | Opinion

January 28, 2025

Rep. Jim Jordan

The Federal Bureau of Investigation needs fixing.

Never forget, this is the FBI that went after concerned parents at school board meetings. This is the FBI that equated pro-life Catholics with domestic terrorists. This is the FBI that can't tell us who planted the pipe bombs at the Capitol, who leaked the Supreme Court's Dobbs opinion, or who brought cocaine to the White House.

This is the same FBI that abused its warrantless surveillance authority to spy on President Trump's campaign in 2016. The FBI that employed senior investigators who mocked conservative Americans and vowed to stop Donald Trump from becoming president. And this is the FBI that raided President Trump's home and riffled through his private and presidential records.

When brave and patriotic FBI employees spoke out about these and other abuses, this is the FBI that systemically targeted and harassed them. The FBI suspended these whistleblowers without pay and blocked them from getting outside employment to support their families. The FBI even created a politically motivated questionnaire to demand information about the political and personal views of its employees, including whether they supported President Trump.

Americans are sick of these abuses. They are sick of the excuses and the denials. They are tired of FBI leaders who never accept responsibility for the Bureau's shortcomings.

The FBI must work for Americans—for "we the people." The FBI needs major reforms, and it needs them now.

Kash Patel is the right man at the right time for this important job. Kash has dedicated his career to public service. He is smart, he is tough, and he gets results.

Kash began his legal career as a public defender, defending clients in both state and federal court. He moved on to the Justice Department, serving for several years as a trial attorney in the National Security Division. He later worked in the White House and the Defense Department in senior policy and management roles.

I first met Kash when he was the lead investigator for my former colleague, Representative Devin Nunes, on the House Intelligence Committee. Kash was critical to exposing the Russian collusion hoax and bringing truth to the American people. Through Kash's work, we now know that the Clinton campaign hired a Democrat-connected law firm, who hired a private research firm, who hired a foreigner to put together a bogus dossier that became the basis for the FBI to spy on President Trump's campaign.

Kash was relentless and he was fearless. He followed the facts and pursued the leads, even when the Deputy Attorney General threatened him if he didn't stop. If Kash had succumbed to that pressure, we never would have uncovered the depths and political motivations of the Russian collusion hoax.

Kash understands how law enforcement power can be abused—because he has been a victim of that abuse. While working for Representative Nunes, the Justice Department secretly obtained Kash's personal phone and text records at the same time he was leading the Russia hoax investigation. The Justice Department never told Kash that it got his records and didn't fess up to the abuse until years later.

Kash supports the men and women of law enforcement because he has worked alongside them. He has tried cases and run complex, high-profile investigations. He's got experience in our law enforcement system and our intelligence community.

Kash Patel has the skill set, the traits, the temperament, and the intelligence that we need desperately at the FBI now. Kash will get the politics out of the FBI and get the FBI refocused on doing what it's supposed to do: stopping crime and protecting the public.

The Senate should quickly and overwhelmingly confirm Kash Patel to be the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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