FBI Director Kash Patel is apparently not making child sex predators a priority at the bureau.
Patel finished his latest—and potentially last—hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee kicking and screaming Tuesday, raising his voice to Senator Adam Schiff after the lawmaker questioned the recent transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum-security prison in Texas.
Schiff pointed out that the facility was “not suitable for a sex offender” and that Maxwell’s transfer had been arranged after she provided testimony to federal authorities, including members of the FBI.
“Who made that decision and why?” asked Schiff.
Patel responded hastily: “The Bureau of Prisons.”
“The Bureau of Prisons decided on their own—without any consultation from [Deputy Attorney General Todd] Blanche or anyone else—that they were going to suddenly after this interview, completely unrelated to this interview, completely unrelated to anything she said, move her to a prison not suitable for a sex offender?” pressed Schiff. “Do you want the American people to believe that? Do you think they’re stupid?”
“No, I think the American people believe the truth, that I’m not in the weeds on the everyday movements of inmates,” Patel said, referring to the longtime associate and girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, who on her own stands as one of the most notorious child sex offenders of the century. “What I am doing is protecting this country, providing historic reform and combating the weaponization of intelligence by the likes of you, and we have countlessly proven you to be a liar in Russiagate, in January 6.”
That’s when Patel turned up the temperature.
“You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate,” Patel yelled, calling Schiff’s political career a “charade.”
“You are a disgrace to this institution and an utter coward,” he told Schiff. “You are a political buffoon, at best.”
Schiff, however, was willing to throw it back.
“You can make an internet troll the FBI director, but [you] will always be nothing more than an internet troll,” Schiff said as the pair spoke over one another.
The exchange concluded with a final word from Patel, though his dismissive attitude toward the topic of Maxwell’s incarceration didn’t paint a pretty picture for the podcaster’s apparently hyperpartisan priorities.
“All you care about is a child sex predator that was prosecuted by a prior administration,” Patel said. “And the Obama Justice Department and the Biden Justice Department did squat. And what did President Trump do? Bring new charges, courageously.”
Patel’s disinterest in catching child predators stretches far beyond a quick beef in the annals of Congress. Instead, there appears to be a top-down transformation at the agency influenced by Patel’s personal ideology: Just about every agent on the FBI’s Baltimore domestic terrorism squad was directed to refocus their attention on detaining immigrants, forcing agents to pause investigations into violent child predators and pedophilia networks, MSNBC reported Tuesday.
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