Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, faced questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing on January 30, 2025. Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley pressed Patel on a range of conservative grievances regarding the FBI’s investigations, including probes into potential extremists in Catholic faith communities, individuals disrupting local public forums over education curricula and COVID lockdown policies.
Hawley expressed outrage at the alleged policies, saying, “Once again, I can’t imagine I could have ever thought this would happen to the United States of America.” He asked Patel if he would conduct an internal investigation into the matter, discipline any agents involved, and work to prevent such investigations from happening again.
Patel responded affirmatively, stating that he would indeed conduct an internal investigation and take disciplinary action against any agents found to be involved. He also pledged to work to prevent similar investigations from occurring in the future.
