“DON’T DELETE” Democrat CATCHES Kash Patel Off Guard! FBI Chief Looks Away at Heated Hearing — Trump

[0:00] And you have an obligation as FBI director to ensure that none of the personnel files, [0:05] none of the emails, none of the voicemails, none of the text messages are destroyed. [0:12] You will preserve those records, will you not? [0:15] We preserve all records. [0:16] We're not the ones that deleted records. [0:18] We will hold you to that. [0:19] Were FBI agents pushed out for investigating Donald Trump? [0:24] Senator Adam Schiff wants a yes or no from Kash Patel. [0:27] Patel says most of them simply retired. [0:30] Schiff isn't buying it, and he ends with a warning, preserve every record, because the [0:35] next Congress may come looking. [0:37] So who's right about what happened inside the bureau? [0:40] Let's look at the record. [0:42] This is the Capitol brief. [0:43] Mr. Patel, there were at least two major investigations of President Trump in the previous Justice Department. [0:51] One that investigated his role in the violent attack on the Capitol, on the incitement of [0:56] that attack. [0:57] Another investigation that investigated his purloining of hundreds of classified documents, their storage [1:08] in his place at Mar-a-Lago, efforts to obstruct the investigation. [1:14] Those two investigations were properly predicated. [1:17] Those investigations resulted in grand juries bringing returning indictments, charging the [1:24] President numerous times with serious felony offenses. [1:28] I have questions for you today about the agents who worked on those investigations. [1:33] Let me first start with a simple numeric question. [1:36] How many agents, FBI agents, were used in the investigation of the Mar-a-Lago documents [1:44] case against the President? [1:45] About how many? [1:46] I have no idea. [1:47] I wasn't here then. [1:48] Would it have been dozens? [1:50] I don't know. [1:51] You'd have to ask the previous prior administration. [1:53] Well, a lot of those people were fired under your directorship. [1:56] Were they not? [1:57] I don't think a lot of them, but a lot of them retired and some of the ones that weaponized [2:02] law enforcement were terminated as they always will be. [2:04] So can you pull the microphone close? [2:06] We're having trouble hearing you. [2:07] You might want to pull the whole thing closer to you. [2:11] So are you testimony today that you don't know if they were fired or maybe some of them [2:17] were fired or many were fired? [2:18] What's your testimony? [2:19] How many of them were fired? [2:20] My testimony is I don't know the personnel actions that were taken by the prior administration [2:24] and the personnel actions. [2:25] No, I'm talking about your administration. [2:26] I'm getting there. [2:27] The personnel actions that were taken by me are simply as follows. [2:30] Nobody at the FBI, as I've committed to, is allowed to participate in the weaponization [2:34] of law enforcement. [2:35] That's not my question. [2:37] How many of the agents who worked on the Mar-a-Lago investigation of Donald Trump, how many [2:42] of them? [2:43] I don't have that. [2:44] Were fired by the FBI? [2:45] I don't know. [2:46] Are any of them still working for the FBI? [2:47] I don't have that number. [2:48] That's not my responsibility. [2:49] Well, that's not, I'm not asking for a number now. [2:51] Are any of the agents who worked on the Mar-a-Lago investigation of the president still employed [2:56] at the FBI? [2:57] I don't believe so. [2:58] Most of them left. [2:59] Okay. [3:00] So you don't believe any of the agents who worked on that investigation are still at [3:05] the FBI? [3:06] I can't stop them from retiring. [3:08] Is it your testimony that they're not at the FBI because they retired, not because they were fired? [3:13] My understanding is the overwhelming majority of those agents and FBI personnel retired. [3:20] Some background. [3:21] Early last year, the Justice Department ordered the FBI to identify agents who had worked on [3:26] January 6th cases, and thousands of names were handed over. [3:31] Over the following months, senior officials and agents tied to the Trump investigations [3:37] were removed, including the bureau's acting director. [3:41] All of them have sued, saying they were fired for political reasons. [3:45] Patel's answer is that most agents on those cases retired and that anyone who weaponized [3:50] law enforcement was terminated. [3:52] Both things can be partly true. [3:55] Retirement under pressure and dismissal are different on paper, but not always in practice. [4:00] The numbers would settle it, and Patel says he doesn't have them. [4:03] Well, let me ask you this. [4:07] Todd Blanche at a CPAC conference says, and when it comes to the FBI, Director Patel has [4:12] cleaned house there too. [4:15] There isn't a single man or woman with a gun, federal agent still in that organization, [4:22] that had anything to do with the prosecution of President Trump. [4:26] So the Attorney General says you cleaned house at the FBI. [4:28] I did. [4:31] Was he right? [4:32] Was he truthful when he said there's not a single agent at the FBI who worked on the [4:35] Mar-a-Lago investigation still employed by the FBI? [4:38] The Attorney General is always truthful, so I believe his statement. [4:40] Okay, so they're all gone. [4:43] Is your testimony today that most of those agents are no longer with the FBI because they [4:47] decided suddenly to retire? [4:49] Yeah. [4:50] They weren't fired in whole or in part because they worked on that investigation? [4:54] The bulk of the individuals that worked on those investigations left shortly thereafter. [4:59] And they left voluntarily? [5:01] In the prior administration. [5:02] I'm talking about under your watch, Director Patel. [5:06] They left before I got there. [5:08] There's really nothing I can do. [5:09] So it's your testimony that most of them voluntarily left the Bureau. [5:12] They weren't fired? [5:13] Most of them, yeah. [5:14] And is the same true of the agents who investigated the President's involvement in January 6th? [5:20] How many, well, first of all, how many agents would you say that would be? [5:23] Would it be dozens or hundreds of agents? [5:25] I don't know. [5:27] You'd have to ask the prior administration. [5:28] They were in charge of them. [5:30] You have no idea whether it is over 100 agents? [5:32] No, my focus is not going back in time. [5:35] My focus is crushing violent crime and defending the homeland and receive historic results. [5:39] Well, my question is, were those agents, as Todd Blanche indicated, also purged from [5:47] the FBI under your watch because they had worked on the January 6th investigation? [5:52] The FBI has one specific and simple standard. [5:55] If you don't meet our high standards- [5:57] That's not my question. [5:58] I'm getting there. [5:59] If you don't meet those standards, you don't get to work at the FBI. [6:03] Take a little less time to get there, if you would. [6:05] Were they purged because they worked on the January 6th investigation of the President? [6:10] There was no purging. [6:11] And there are individuals who worked on a whole host of investigations. [6:14] Here's why that quote matters. [6:16] Todd Blanche, one of the most senior officials at the Justice Department, told a conservative [6:21] audience that Patel had cleaned house and that no federal agent who worked on the prosecution [6:27] of Trump remained. [6:29] Patel says he believes that statement, but also says the agents left on their own. [6:34] Those two claims are hard to fit together. [6:37] Supporters of the administration argue that these investigations were themselves political [6:42] and that a change of personnel was overdue. [6:45] Critics say firing agents for doing assigned cases chills every future investigation of the [6:51] powerful. [6:52] That's the real disagreement here. [6:54] Were any of those agents, were any of those agents fired? [6:57] Many retired, some were terminated. [7:00] Excuse me, excuse me. [7:01] Let me finish the question. [7:02] Go ahead. [7:03] Were any of the agents who worked on the Mar-a-Lago investigation, [7:06] or the January 6th investigation, were any of those agents fired in whole or in part [7:14] because they worked on those investigations? [7:16] For the simple fact of working on those investigations, no. [7:19] If they weaponized law enforcement, yes. [7:21] So, all of the agents who just happened to work on those investigations and were fired, [7:29] is it your testimony that's because they were engaged in some other malfeasance, [7:34] other than simply being assigned to those two cases? [7:37] There's an entire inspection division at the FBI that looked at the totality of not just these agents [7:42] and employees, but everybody on a constant basis, and they make recommendations to leadership. [7:45] But my question is very specific, Mr. Patel. [7:47] Answering your question. [7:48] Well, I haven't heard the answer, so I'm going to try again. [7:51] Go ahead. [7:52] Of all the probably hundreds of agents who worked on those two investigations of the President, [7:59] those hundreds of agents, maybe thousands, that your Attorney General says are gone from the FBI, [8:07] is it your testimony that none of them were fired solely for working on those investigations? [8:15] All FBI personnel, those matters or others, are held to the same standard. [8:20] You don't meet it, you don't get to work at the FBI. [8:22] So it's your testimony that none of them were fired, in whole or in part, because they worked on those investigations? [8:28] I've answered the question. [8:30] Is that answer a yes? [8:31] I've answered the question. [8:33] I don't think you have. [8:34] Okay. [8:35] But I can understand why you wouldn't want to. [8:37] The FBI is being sued for wrongful termination. [8:41] And I will remind you, Director, because you probably need reminding, that while this Congress [8:46] is not going to investigate the wrongful termination of potentially hundreds of agents [8:51] for working on properly predicated investigations, the next Congress will. [8:57] And you have an obligation, as FBI Director, to ensure that none of the personnel files, none of the emails, [9:04] none of the voicemails, none of the text messages are destroyed. [9:09] You will preserve those records, will you not? [9:11] We preserve all records. [9:14] We're not the ones that deleted records. [9:15] We will hold you to that. [9:16] The ones that deleted records are the prior administration. [9:18] Let me ask you another question. [9:20] Listen to the wording of Schiff's question. [9:23] Fired in whole or in part, because they worked on those cases. [9:28] That's a lawyer's question. [9:30] And it matters, because in wrongful termination cases, [9:34] a motive doesn't have to be the only reason to be unlawful. [9:38] Patel's answer, that agents are fired only for failing the Bureau's standards, avoids that test. [9:45] On records, Patel is right that the law already requires him to preserve them. [9:50] Federal records rules apply to emails and messages, and lawsuits add their own duty to keep evidence. [9:57] Schiff's warning about the next Congress depends on the midterm results. [10:01] I want to read you a statement that you made about the press. [10:08] This was in 2024, when you said that the mainstream media was, quote, [10:14] the most powerful enemy that the United States has ever seen. [10:18] Do you stand by that? [10:19] Your colleagues put that on full display here today. [10:23] Do you stand by that? [10:24] I'm answering the question. [10:25] Your colleagues put that on full display by hacking around the same lies and personal pieces of attacks. [10:30] No, no, no, no. This is your comment. [10:32] And that's what makes the majority of the mainstream media. [10:34] Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, I don't want to have to go over my time, as other colleagues have. [10:37] I've answered the question. [10:39] So if you could answer the question, do you stand by this statement? [10:41] That's a great picture. You should post it. [10:43] Do you stand by your statement? [10:44] I always do. [10:45] So is it your view then that the media is a greater enemy than Iran? [10:53] That's not what I said. I said the media that participates in lying like you do and the baseless attacks on me and my personnel, my loved ones, is the most harmful institution to the United States of America because you don't want to tell the truth. [11:07] And by this mainstream media that you're accusing of lying, you're talking about the New York Times? Are they part of the enemy? [11:13] I mean, I'm talking about the ones that you said are still looking for. [11:15] Are you talking about the New York Times? [11:16] Aren't you and them the ones still looking for Russia collusion? [11:18] Excuse me. [11:19] Did you find Russia collusion? [11:20] Is it in that envelope? [11:21] Patel's comment about the media is on the record. [11:25] In 2024, before taking office, he called the mainstream media the most powerful enemy the United States has ever seen. [11:33] Here he narrows it to outlets he says are lying about him and his family and then turns the attack back on shift over the Russia investigation. [11:42] So what should we take from this exchange? [11:44] Here's where I land. [11:46] Patel is entitled to defend his decisions, but a director of the FBI should be able to say how many agents were fired and why. [11:54] That's not about party loyalty. [11:56] It's about accountability. [11:58] Now I want to hear from you. [12:00] Were these agents pushed out for doing their jobs or did the bureau need a reset? [12:05] Tell me in the comments and give me your reasoning, not just your team. [12:09] And subscribe to The Capital Brief for more congressional hearings and commentary that looks beyond the headlines. [12:16] ... [12:22] I want to hear from you. [12:26] That's why I do something that says bastante loyal. [12:28] I want to hear about computation [12:31] and that I've saw you and you guys just mix it up. [12:33] I want to hear about the consideration of power and power in to your power and power in to your power.