Judicial Watch Statement on the Confirmation of Kash Patel

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton made the following statement regarding the confirmation of Kash Patel as director of the FBI:

Kash Patel is a patriot and a fighter. I congratulate him on his confirmation as director of the FBI. It was a scandal his confirmation took this long.

I consider Kash a friend, and he is the perfect choice to reform the FBI. Kash will bring transparency and accountability back to an agency that became irredeemably corrupt and the tip of the spear in unfettered lawfare against any American seen as a threat to the ruling class. From sitting on Hunter Biden’s laptop in order to influence the 2020 election, the raid of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, and the censorship of Americans, to the targeting of traditional Catholics, the FBI has shown itself as a tainted domestic and intelligence service. Kash Patel has his work set out for him.

Under its previous leadership, the FBI became the enemy of transparency, the rule of law, constitutional government, and the civil rights of tens of millions of Americans. (Judicial Watch and I witnessed firsthand the corruption of Wray’s operation when FBI agents came to my home in what was obvious retaliation for our criticism and lawsuits exposing their abuses.) 

Kash Patel should open wide the FBI’s files and expose its abuses of power targeting Trump and countless other American citizens. Along with bringing transparency and accountability back to the FBI, Kash will return the agency to its core mission, legitimate law enforcement that will protect the rights of law-abiding Americans and prosecute legitimate crimes.

Kash will be a welcome breath of fresh air for which we will all be grateful.

Judicial Watch is perhaps the nation’s leading FOIA litigant against the FBI on its corruption issues. For example:

• In October 2024, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department for messages among top leaders of the FBI referencing social media posts of Special Agent Jeffrey Veltri, head of the Miami Field Office, which is investigating the September 15 assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
• In May 2024, Judicial Watch uncovered a recording of a phone message left by an FBI special agent for someone at the Secret Service in the context of the raid on President Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
• In April 2024, Justice Department records showed that  the FBI opened a criminal investigation of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt after her killing and listed four “potential violations of federal law,” including felony rioting and civil disorder.
• Judicial Watch in January 2023 sued the DOJ for records of communications between the FBI and social media sites regarding foreign influence in elections, as well as the Hunter Biden laptop story.
• In November 2023, Judicial Watch, along with CatholicVote Civic Action, received FBI records showing top officials rushing to craft a public response to the leaked FBI intelligence memo that revealed its targeting of Catholics who adhere to traditional beliefs on church issues. In December 2023, heavily redacted records from the FBI showed that the agency’s Office of General Counsel reviewed the controversial targeting of the Catholics by the Richmond field office of the FBI.
• In August 2022, the Department of Justice’s released a highly redacted affidavit in response to Judicial Watch’s court request to unseal the warrant materials used in the unprecedented raid on the home of President Trump.

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