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President Trump completed the most impressive political comeback in American history. He not only won 312 electoral votes, but he won the national popular vote and reshaped the political landscape.
President Trump’s victory comes with a mandate from voters to reform Washington. On the campaign trail, President Trump vowed to end the weaponization of our justice system after President Biden abused the Justice Department by targeting President Trump with senseless indictments.
The weaponization of the justice system, however, extended far beyond President Trump. The Biden FBI targeted concerned parents at school board meetings, Catholics and pro-life activists. The House Judiciary Committee, for example, found evidence that the Justice Department “opened investigations into parents simply for speaking out on behalf of their children.”
This is why Kash Patel’s nomination by President Trump to lead the FBI is critically important. Patel is exactly who we need atop the FBI to bring much-needed change.
There is no questioning whether Patel has the requisite experience. He has served in key national security roles throughout the government. He served as an award-winning terrorist prosecutor in the Justice Department during the Obama administration, was the national security adviser for the House Intelligence Committee and later served as Principal Deputy to the Acting Director of National Intelligence. He was a chief of staff at the Department of Defense as well.
Patel also has the right background to flush out the corruption at the FBI. While on the House Intelligence Committee, he helped author the so-called Nunes Memo describing malfeasance at the DOJ and FBI, including improper spying on a Trump campaign official by the FBI in the lead-up to the November 2016 election.
Look no further to how former FBI top official Andrew McCabe responded to Kash Patel’s nomination to see why the Bureau is in desperate need of reform: “It’s a terrible development for the men and women of the FBI and also for the nation that depends on a highly functioning, professional, independent FBI,” McCabe said on CNN.
McCabe is exactly the type of FBI official whom Patel will root out. He was fired from the FBI after an inspector general report accused him of lying under oath to federal investigators. Furthermore, the FBI isn’t “independent.” This is a common media talking point, and it’s nonsense. The FBI is not — and has never been — an independent agency.
The FBI is like every other federal agency, part of the executive branch headed by the President. If the Bureau was “independent,” that would mean it was anti-democratic and immune from reform and electoral accountability. It’s ironic that the “vote for democracy” crowd would root for an unaccountable secret police. An “independent FBI” means bureaucrats could abuse their power and never face any repercussions from voters.
Claiming the FBI is independent — and unaccountable — to Americans through our duly elected President of the United States simply proves we live with a Deep State.
Voters made their voices loud and clear in November and chose FBI reform. The Senate should confirm Kash Patel to restore confidence in the agency.
It is nothing more than fearmongering when Democrats say he will politicize the DOJ. The DOJ is currently politicized; even Joe Biden thinks that in his own misconstrued way — it was the reason he cited in his pardon of his son Hunter. It’s time to remove politics from the FBI and restore due process by confirming Kash Patel as the next FBI Director.
Mike Davis is the founder and president of the Article III Project. As the former chief counsel for nominations to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), he served as the staff leader for Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation. Davis served as a law clerk to Justice Neil Gorsuch, both on the 10th Circuit and Supreme Court.
