Before that,\u00a0tensions flared<\/a>\u00a0between Patel and Sen.\u00a0Cory Booker\u00a0(D-N.J.) when the senator said he expects the director could soon be fired amid\u00a0conservative backlash<\/a>\u00a0to Patel\u2019s handling of the Kirk shooting.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Patel, I think you\u2019re not going to be around long. I think this might be your last full oversight hearing,\u201d Booker said. \u201cBecause as much as you supplicate yourself to the will of Donald Trump and not the constitution of the United States of America, Donald Trump has shown us in his first term, and in this term, he is not loyal to people like you. He will cut you loose.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are five takeaways from the contentious hearing.<\/p>\n Patel denied the central allegations of a recently filed lawsuit<\/a>, saying he did not take cues from President Trump in deciding to fire several top agents, including a career agent who led the FBI on an acting basis before he was confirmed.<\/p>\n Patel\u2019s statements contrast with allegations from Brian Driscoll, who says he was told his firing last month was because \u201cthe FBI tried to put the president in jail, and he hasn\u2019t forgotten it.\u201d Driscoll indicated he believes Patel\u2019s reference to his superiors meant the Justice Department and the White House, and according to the suit, Patel did not deny it.<\/p>\n But Patel offered a different account when confronted by lawmakers.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t receive directions to do that,\u201d he said, adding \u201cI make the decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cAny termination at the FBI was a decision that I made based on the evidence that I have as a director of the FBI. That\u2019s my job, and I don\u2019t shy away from it. And as you stated, those were allegations, and that is ongoing litigation. They\u2019ll have their day in court. So will we,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n The lawsuit makes several other allegations regarding high level Trump administration officials, including that Stephen Miller called for widespread firings at the FBI and that former No. 3 Justice Department official Emil Bove planned to terminate anyone who clashed with the president\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n Patel also faced questions about scores of other firings, including the five career staffers who headed the bureau\u2019s branches, 18 of the 53 leaders<\/a> running the bureau\u2019s various field offices, and other key staffers throughout the FBI.<\/p>\n Patel refused to answer questions about how many agents have been fired, forced out or left the agency under Trump, nor would he say who has been tapped to replace exiting personnel. At one point he said the FBI has the funding to fill hundreds of vacancies, but Patel also said it would take 14 years \u201cto onboard every vacancy that\u2019s on the books currently.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou admitted in this hearing \u2026 that it would take 14 years to fill the vacancies at your agency. Many are the result of your purge. Twenty percent of FBI agents are doing low-level immigration enforcement instead of their mission-critical work. You\u2019ve disbanded entire task forces that stop election interference, foreign influence, public corruption,\u201d Booker said.<\/p>\n \u201cWho benefits from this?\u201d<\/p>\n Multiple Democrats questioned Patel about the firings, noting that in his confirmation hearing, he pledged not to terminate employees for political reasons. Schiff at one point held up a quote from the director saying, \u201cAll FBI employees will be protected against political retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to mince words. You lied to us. In the short time that you\u2019ve been FBI director, you\u2019ve presided over a rash of retaliatory firings,\u201d Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said.<\/p>\n Patel took offense.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only way people get terminated at the FBI is if they fail to meet the muster of the job and their duties. And that is where I will leave it. And you accusing me of lying is something I don\u2019t take lightly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But that discussion saw greater nuance under questioning from Schiff, when he asked whether any agents have been fired because of assignments they took.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one at the FBI is terminated for case assignments alone,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n But that caught the ear of Schiff.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re saying \u2018alone.\u2019 Does that mean they were terminated in part because they were assigned to a Jan. 6 case [or] were assigned to the Mar-a-Lago case?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have to answer your question [as a] yes or no, because you\u2019re setting up a trap,\u201d Patel responded.<\/p>\n In the early days of the administration, Bove asked for a list of all FBI agents who worked on the cases of Jan. 6 rioters, a group that numbered in the thousands. And in recent weeks, the bureau fired Walter Giardina, a longtime agent who worked on a number of high-profile cases, including those that involved Trump.<\/p>\n At another point, Patel was asked about an agent who largely serves as a pilot for the FBI but was fired after right-wing podcaster Kyle Seraphin accused him of being central to the Mar-a-Lago investigation.<\/p>\n Durbin called it \u201cdisgraceful\u201d that employees are being \u201cterminated apparently because of the rants of a podcaster.\u201d<\/p>\n Patel fielded a number of questions about polygraph tests that have been given to agents, as well as other questions asked seeking the political persuasion of agents.<\/p>\nPatel denies Trump role in forcing out top staff<\/h2>\n
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Personnel moves<\/h2>\n
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Polygraphs and politicization <\/h2>\n
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