FBI Director Patel Testifies Amid Senate Scrutiny

FBI Director Kash Patel testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 15, 2026, his first appearance since September 2025. More than 1,100 FBI special agents have departed the bureau. A wire summary reported an 18.1 percent drop in the murder rate in 2025. Sen. Dick Durbin called Patel the least qualified and most partisan FBI director in the nation's history and accused him of using law enforcement powers for retribution against Trump's political opponents. Durbin said Patel opens positions to applicants with significant misconduct histories; Democrats alleged the FBI admits applicants with histories of employee theft, paying for sex, or bestiality. Patel told Sen. Chuck Grassley he made 11 personal residence trips in 2025, a 41.3 percent reduction versus Wray and 38.9 percent versus Comey, and that Andrews flights could have saved $3.5 million. He said two armored BMWs saved over $1 million each versus Suburbans. In the 2025 hearing Patel called Schiff a political buffoon and Booker an embarrassment. Patel filed a $420 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic. The FBI assigned hundreds of analysts to Fulton County election records and raided a warehouse there in January.