Politics
Sparks expected to fly at Kash Patel’s Senate confirmation hearing to lead FBI
![Sparks expected to fly at Kash Patel’s Senate confirmation hearing to lead FBI Sparks expected to fly at Kash Patel’s Senate confirmation hearing to lead FBI](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/01/kashhearing2.png)
President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, is expected to trade barbs with lawmakers in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Patel, a former public defender, Department of Justice official and longtime Trump ally, will join the Senate committee at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, when lawmakers are anticipated to grill the nominee on plans detailed in his 2023 book to overhaul the FBI, his crusade against the “deep state” and his resume, as Democrats argue the nominee lacks the qualifications for the role.
The president and his allies, however, staunchly have defended Patel, with Senate Judiciary member Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., arguing that Democrats are “fearful” of Patel’s nomination and confirmation due to “what he’s going to reveal” to the general public.
“They are very fearful of Kash Patel, because Kash Patel knows what Adam Schiff and some of the others did with Russia collusion, and they know that he he knows – the dirt on them, if you will – and I think they’re fearful of what he’s going to do and what he’s going to reveal,” Blackburn said on Fox News on Sunday.
WHO IS KASH PATEL? TRUMP’S PICK TO LEAD THE FBI HAS LONG HISTORY VOWING TO BUST UP ‘DEEP STATE’
President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, is expected to trade barbs with lawmakers in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Patel, a New York native, worked as a public defender in Florida’s Miami-Dade after earning his law degree in 2005 from Pace University in New York City.
Patel’s national name recognition grew under the first Trump administration, when he worked as the national security advisor and senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence under the leadership of Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. Patel became known as the man behind the “Nunes Memo” – a four-page document released in 2018 that revealed improper use of surveillance by the FBI and the Justice Department in the Russia investigation into Trump.
Patel was named senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council in 2019. In that role, he assisted the Trump White House in eliminating foreign terrorist leadership, such as ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019 and al Qaeda terrorist Qasim al-Raymi in 2020, according to his biography. His efforts ending terrorist threats under the Trump administration came after he won a DOJ award in 2017 for his prosecution and conviction of 12 terrorists responsible for the World Cup bombings in 2010 in Uganda under the Obama administration.
Following the 2020 election, Patel remained a steadfast ally of Trump’s, joining the 45th president during his trial in Manhattan in the spring of 2024, and echoing that the United States’ security and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, need to be overhauled.
‘JUST LIKE TRUMP’: ISIS MURDER VICTIM KAYLA MUELLER’S PARENTS ENDORSE PATEL FOR FBI FOLLOWING MILITARY OP ROLE
![Kash Patel worked as a public defender in Florida’s Miami-Dade after earning his law degree in 2005 from Pace University in New York City.](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/12/1200/675/gettyimages-2189040220-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Kash Patel worked as a public defender in Florida’s Miami-Dade after earning his law degree in 2005 from Pace University in New York City. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Patel underscored in his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters,” that “deep state” government employees have politicized and weaponized the law enforcement agency – and explicitly called for the revamp of the FBI in a chapter dubbed “Overhauling the FBI.”
“Things are bad. There’s no denying it,” he wrote in the book. “The FBI has gravely abused its power, threatening not only the rule of law, but the very foundations of self-government at the root of our democracy. But this isn’t the end of the story. Change is possible at the FBI and desperately needed.”
“The fact is we need a federal agency that investigates federal crimes, and that agency will always be at risk of having its powers abused,” he wrote, advocating the firing of “corrupt actors,” “aggressive” congressional oversight over the agency and the complete overhaul of special counsels.
FORMER TRUMP OFFICIALS REJECT WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIM THAT FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE KASH PATEL BROKE HOSTAGE PROTOCOL
Patel adds in his book: “Most importantly, we need to get the FBI the hell out of Washington, D.C. There is no reason for the nation’s law enforcement agency to be centralized in the swamp.”
Trump heralded the book as a “roadmap” to exposing bad actors in the federal government and said it is a “blueprint to help us take back the White House and remove these Gangsters from all of Government.”
Patel has spoken out against a number of high-profile investigations and issues he sees within the DOJ in the past few years. He slammed the department, for example, for allegedly burying evidence related to the identity of a suspect who allegedly planted pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties in Washington, D.C., a day ahead of Jan. 6, 2021.
‘BEACON OF SELFLESSNESS’: ISIS VICTIM KAYLA MUELLER HONORED AT CONGRESSMAN’S SWEARING-IN 10 YEARS AFTER DEATH
Patel has also said Trump could release both the Jeffrey Epstein client list and Sean “Diddy” Combs party attendee lists, which could expose those allegedly involved in sex and human trafficking crimes.
![Three senate Dems](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/01/1200/675/kashpatelgrilling.png?ve=1&tl=1)
Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin, Amy Klobuchar and Mazie Hirono, who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Getty Images)
Senate Democrats received an anonymous whistleblower report that was publicly reported Monday alleging Patel violated protocol during a hostage rescue mission in October 2020, an allegation Trump’s orbit has brushed off.
The whistleblower claimed that Patel leaked to the Wall Street Journal that two Americans and the remains of a third were being transferred to U.S. custody from Yemen, where they had been held hostage by Houthi rebels, before the hostages were actually in U.S. custody. Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, obtained the whistleblower report.
A transition official pushed back on the report in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, saying Patel has a “track record of success.”
‘WHEN THEY FAIL, AMERICANS DIE’: TRUMP SOURCE BLASTS FBI, URGES SWIFT CONFIRMATION OF KASH PATEL AS DIRECTOR
“Mr. Patel was a public defender, decorated prosecutor, and accomplished national security official that kept Americans safe,” the official said. “He has a track record of success in every branch of government, from the courtroom to congressional hearing room to the situation room. There is no veracity to this anonymous source’s complaints about protocol.”
![Kash Patel has spoken out against a number of high-profile investigations and issues he sees within the DOJ in the past few years.](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/12/1200/675/gettyimages-2177572342-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Kash Patel has spoken out against a number of high-profile investigations and issues he sees within the DOJ in the past few years. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
Alexander Gray, who served as chief of staff for the White House National Security Council under Trump’s first administration, called the allegation “simply absurd.”
Patel’s nomination comes after six of Trump’s nominees were confirmed by the Senate, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth – who also was viewed as a nominee who faced an uphill confirmation battle.
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The Senate schedule this week was packed with hearings besides Patel’s, with senators grilling Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday and also holding the hearing for Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to serve as director of national intelligence.
![Donald Trump smiles in a navy suit and red tie](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/11/1200/675/election-day-2024-trump-harris-nov-5_204.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Kash Patel is a former public defender, Department of Justice official and longtime ally of President Donald Trump. (Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)
Patel heads into his hearing armed with a handful of high-profile endorsements, including the National Sheriffs’ Association and National Police Association.
Carl and Marsha Mueller, the parents of ISIS murder victim Kayla Mueller, also notably endorsed Patel, Fox News Digital exclusively reported on Tuesday. Patel helped oversee a military mission in 2019 that killed ISIS leader al-Baghdadi, who was believed to have repeatedly tortured and raped Kayla Mueller before her death in 2015.
Patel “loves his country. He loves the people of this country,” Marsha Mueller told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview via Zoom on Monday morning. “To us, you know, he is a person that we would go to for help. And he is so action oriented.”
“Just like Trump,” Carl Mueller added to his wife’s comments on Patel’s action-motivated personality.
Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
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Politics
Here’s What to Know About Congressional Republicans’ Budget Plans
![Here’s What to Know About Congressional Republicans’ Budget Plans Here’s What to Know About Congressional Republicans’ Budget Plans](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/02/19/multimedia/19dc-budget-explainer-bkvh/19dc-budget-explainer-bkvh-facebookJumbo.jpg)
The Senate on Tuesday evening voted on party lines to adopt a budget outline designed to clear the way for a major piece of President Trump’s domestic agenda, putting forth a measure that calls for increasing spending on immigration enforcement and defense while cutting other federal programs.
Republicans in Congress have been consumed for weeks with advancing a budget blueprint to power their push to enact Mr. Trump’s sweeping tax and immigration agenda. Approval of such a plan is a crucial first step if Republicans want to avail themselves of a process called budget reconciliation, which allows legislation that affects government revenues to pass the Senate on a simple majority vote.
For decades, both parties have used that maneuver to push major domestic policy legislation through Congress — including tax cuts, health care policy changes and economic relief packages — over the opposition of the minority party. The stakes are exceedingly high, and the process is tremendously difficult.
The House and Senate, both controlled by Republicans, have been working on separate budget plans and are at odds on how to move forward. With the House G.O.P. divided and delayed in considering their outline, the Senate is moving ahead.
Here’s what you need to know about the budget.
What is a budget resolution?
In theory, Congress is supposed to adopt a budget resolution each year setting a top-line number for federal funding and providing general contours for how that money should be spent. After the plan is approved, it falls to lawmakers on the Appropriations Committees to allocate federal dollars, following the blueprint.
Lawmakers in recent years have not produced such a plan or put it to a vote, sidestepping tough decisions about what programs to spend on and what programs to cut. Instead, congressional leaders, in collaboration with senior appropriators, have agreed on the overall numbers and simply passed spending legislation each year.
But in order to use the reconciliation process, the House and the Senate must each adopt a budget resolution that lays out broad areas of agreement on where to increase and decrease spending.
The budget resolution is just a blueprint. Unlike a spending bill, it does not carry the force of law, and it does not fund the government. Its consideration is entirely separate from another task that Republicans in Congress have in the weeks ahead: agreeing to and passing legislation to keep federal funding flowing past a March 14 deadline.
The budget measure being considered this week does not even lay out what specific legislative changes to take in order to meet the spending targets it contains. Those changes must be detailed in separate legislation — one or multiple bills — that is subject to restrictive rules for what can be included and which must pass both the House and Senate to become law.
What’s the difference between the House and Senate blueprints?
The Senate blueprint is far more bare-bones than the House plan. It calls for increasing military spending by $150 billion. Funding for border security measures, including additional detention beds and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, would increase by $175 billion. It does not lay out specific spending cuts to pay for those increases, but Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who chairs the Budget Committee, has indicated that the legislation would be fully paid for, in part through new revenues from domestic drilling.
Mr. Graham has said the blueprint represents just the opening salvo in the Senate’s legislative drive, and that it would be followed by a second bill that would extend the 2017 tax cuts.
The House plan is both more expansive and more granular, in an effort to meet the demands of conservative hard-liners who have demanded that House G.O.P. leaders guarantee deep spending cuts.
That blueprint calls for legislation that would add roughly $3 trillion to the deficit over a decade, while imposing deep cuts in spending on health care and food programs for low-income people. That would help pay for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. It also calls for raising the debt limit by $4 trillion.
Why are the House and the Senate advancing different plans?
House and Senate leaders have remained divided over the best way to enact Mr. Trump’s fiscal promises into law. In the Senate, Republicans have argued that lawmakers should deliver the president an early political victory and quickly pass legislation increasing funding for immigration enforcement, arguing that the Homeland Security Department desperately needs more money to carry out the White House’s ambitious deportation agenda.
But G.O.P. leaders in the House have argued that lumping Mr. Trump’s entire domestic policy agenda into one big bill will make it easier to pass in a chamber where Republicans have a razor-thin majority and will need to muster near-unanimity in order to pass the blueprint.
Senate leaders initially deferred to the House, but after internal divisions slowed their efforts to put together a budget plan, Mr. Graham went ahead and advanced his own plan.
What programs are on the chopping block?
Because the budget resolution only lays out broad spending targets by committee, Republicans have not yet had to choose which federal programs they will cut — or by how much.
But the House blueprint hints at where Republicans plan to find the money to finance their tax cuts. For example, the plan instructs the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, to come up with at least $880 billion in cuts. That accounts for more than half of the reductions laid out in the budget outline.
Those choices will be among the toughest Republican leaders will have to make, especially in the House. They will need to balance the demands of hard-right conservatives who want to gut Medicaid and food stamps against the entreaties of politically vulnerable moderates whose constituents rely on those programs.
At the same time, they will have to decide which tax cuts championed by Mr. Trump are essential, and which they can jettison. Just extending the 2017 tax cuts alone would cost roughly $4 trillion over the next 10 years.
Andrew Duehren contributed reporting.
Politics
Bipartisan probation reform modeled off DeSantis and Jay-Z efforts primed for passage in VA
![Bipartisan probation reform modeled off DeSantis and Jay-Z efforts primed for passage in VA Bipartisan probation reform modeled off DeSantis and Jay-Z efforts primed for passage in VA](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/02/virginia-capitol-prison-split.jpg)
Bipartisan Virginia lawmakers are putting forward a criminal justice reform bill proponents say is modeled after a 2022 Florida law that featured the unlikely pairing of Gov. Ron DeSantis and rap mogul Jay-Z.
State Del. Wren Williams, R-Stuart, is spearheading the effort that already garnered the support of the entire Democratic majority in Virginia’s lower House earlier this month.
The Democratic-majority state Senate is set to vote on its version of the legislation on Wednesday, after which it will then be conferenced into a final bill for Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s review.
Williams’ legislation will offer convicts on supervised probation the ability to fulfill certain criteria in exchange for lighter treatment.
One example is that probates who can prove they are holding a job, seeking educational opportunities or partaking in rehabilitation programs for several months could see their probationary period shortened.
Those provisions and others in the bill are similar to DeSantis’ legislation from three years ago that had been championed by the Jay-Z-founded criminal justice “REFORM Alliance.”
The Florida law, authored by a Tampa Republican, allows probates to earn education and workforce credits that in turn get them out of the system faster, according to Axios.
In Virginia, Williams told Fox News Digital he was inspired both by Florida’s law and the fact that reform initiatives like the First Step Act on the federal level have been key priorities for President Donald Trump.
YOUNGKIN TO DRAFT SANCTUARY CITY BAN, MAKING STATE FUNDING CONTINGENT ON COOPERATION
“Virginia [is] offering conservative solutions that emphasize rehabilitation and second chances,” Williams said.
“Virginia’s approach mirrors Florida’s successful model, focusing on providing individuals under supervision the opportunity to reduce their probation terms by engaging in rehabilitative programs like job training, education, and mental health services.”
While typically viewed as a liberal or Democratic bailiwick, Williams added that Virginia’s legislation proves conservatives can create a consensus on reforms that also align with their values while remaining compassionate.
“By focusing on rehabilitation and offering individuals the chance to prove their commitment to change, the state has demonstrated that reducing recidivism, lowering costs, and promoting public safety are achievable goals,” he said.
Crime and reform were top issues in the last gubernatorial election, with Youngkin and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe trading barbs, including about Democrats’ “defund the police” group that had endorsed the Democrat and purportedly “criminals-first” appointees McAuliffe had made to the parole board.
YOUNGKIN INVITES NEW TRUMP ADMIN TO SETTLE IN VA OVER DC, MD
Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, the front-running Republican gubernatorial candidate in November’s race, heartily endorsed the legislation in comments to conservative radio host John Fredericks this week.
“What I’m talking about is we have about 50,000 men and women who are on probation. And if we can give them incentives, we can get them engaged, get them education; then if you have a job, of course, then there’s something about work that dignifies the soul,” Sears said.
“And all work, of course, is dignified. This is America, where dreams come to see the realization of it. It’s where you can say to your children, ‘You can make it in America.’”
“So I’m all for lifting up that soul,” Sears concluded.
Top Democratic candidate, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, has also been a proponent of some criminal justice reforms, vociferously supporting the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act while in Congress.
A spokesperson for Youngkin told Fox News Digital the “governor will review any bills that come to his desk.”
In 2024, he vetoed a similar bill, HB-457, which would decrease probationary periods and establish criteria for reduction of such.
Politics
Erroneous election reminders sent to thousands of California voters
![Erroneous election reminders sent to thousands of California voters Erroneous election reminders sent to thousands of California voters](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7a31813/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3600x1890+0+255/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F27%2F4f%2F44f41af34e84b45450eff053b7ad%2F636856-tn-dpt-me-ballot-boxes-explainer-20201021-5.jpg)
Thousands of California residents received an automated reminder on Tuesday that election day is next week — except for most voters, it isn’t.
The erroneous messages sent by email to Los Angeles County and Orange County voters arrived with a subject line that read “One Week Left to Return Your Ballot,” and told voters that “is the last day for your ballot to be mailed and postmarked,” omitting the day. Reminders sent by text message said: “Drop your ballot at a nearby drop box or voting location by 8 pm on.”
Elections officials said the incomplete messages originated with BallotTrax, the software that sends automated messages to voters about the status of their mail ballots. The Denver-based company has worked with the California Secretary of State since 2020.
Steve Olsen, the president of BallotTrax, said that the automated reminders should have gone out to about 100,000 voters in two legislative districts that include parts of Los Angeles, Orange, Kern and Tulare counties. Special primary elections are being held in those districts next week.
“Due to a geo-targeting error, the reminder went out to many other voters,” Olsen said in an email. He said the company is still investigating and will send a retraction as soon as they determine which voters received the messages in error.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office said that “nearly all” voters in L.A. County who subscribe to BallotTrax updates received the erroneous messages.
“We apologize for any confusion this has caused,” said a representative for California Secretary of State Shirley Weber.
Voters in the San Gabriel Valley, Santa Monica and San Fernando Valley reported receiving messages intended for voters in state Senate District 36, which spans coastal Orange County, Little Saigon and portions of southern L.A. County.
That district has a primary election Feb. 25 to replace former state Sen. Janet Nguyen, who resigned in November after winning a seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors.
In the Central Valley, voters in Tulare and Kern counties will cast ballots next week to fill the state Assembly vacancy left by Bakersfield Republican Vince Fong, who was elected last year to the U.S. House of Representatives.
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