Washington: The American Senate under control of the Republican confirmed Kash Patel on Thursday, a faithful loyalist who threatened to deal with President Donald Trump’s political enemies, as director of the FBI, the main law enforcement agency of the country.
Patel, 44, whose appointment sparked a fierce but ultimately futile opposition from the Democrats, was approved by a vote of 51-49.
The vote was divided according to the parties with the exception of two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who voted not to confirm the federal office of 38,000 people.
Patel fired Democrats for its promotion of conspiracy theories, its defense of pro-Trump rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and its wish to reduce the members of a supposed “deep state” plotting for s ‘Oppose the Republican President.
The Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, in a Senate speech opposing the appointment of the patel, said that he was “dangerously, politically extreme” and “expressed on several occasions his intention to use the most important agency of Application of our country’s law to retaliate against its political enemies “.
The Senate has approved all of Trump’s cabinet’s firm so far, highlighting its iron grip on the Republican Party.
Among them, Tulsi Gabbard, confirmed as the country’s spying chief, despite the prior support for the opponent’s nations, notably Russia and Syria, and the skeptic of vaccines Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to become a secretary of health.
Patel, in a press release on X, said it was honored to become director of the FBI.
“The American people deserves a transparent FBI, responsible and attached to justice,” he said.
“The politicization of our judicial system has eroded public confidence, but it ends today,” he added. “My mission as a director is clear: let the good cops be cops and reconstruct confidence in the FBI.
“And for those who seek to harm the Americans-consider this your warning,” he said. “We will track you down in every corner of this planet.”
“List of enemies”
Patel replaces Christopher Wray, who was appointed head of the FBI by Trump during his first mandate.
Relations between Wray and Trump have tense themselves, however, and although he had three years in his 10 -year term, Wray resigned after Trump won the November presidential election.
Son of Indian immigrants and former federal prosecutor, the patel, born in New York, served in several high-level positions during the first administration of Trump, in particular as main director of counter-terrorism to the National Security Council.
There were fiery exchanges during the patel confirmation hearing last month when the Democrats published a list of 60 actors supposedly “deep state” – all Trump’s criticisms – he included in a book in 2022 , which, according to him, should be the subject of an investigation or “otherwise insulting”.
Patel denied having had a “list of enemies” and told the Senate judicial committee that he was simply interested in bringing the breakdown to reserve.
“All FBI employees will be protected from political reprisals,” he said.
The FBI is in the process of disorders since Trump took up his duties, and a number of agents have been dismissed or demoted, including some involved in Trump’s prosecution for having sought to cancel the elections of 2020 And to poorly manage classified documents.
Nine FBI employees continued the Ministry of Justice to obtain efforts to collect information on the agents involved in the Trump survey and the Capitol Riot.
In their complaint, FBI agents said that efforts were part of a “purge” orchestrated by Trump as “politically motivated remuneration”.
Trump, during his first day at the White House, pardoned more than 1,500 of his supporters who stormed the Congress in order to block the certification of the electoral victory of the Democrat Joe Biden.
