Kash Patel to face lawmakers in aftermath of Charlie Kirk shooting

Ryan Tarinelli, CQ-Roll Call on Sep 15, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Kash Patel is set to face lawmakers twice this week as he navigates criticism of his leadership as FBI director on politically charged issues such as the Charlie Kirk murder investigation, the unreleased investigative materials related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and the firing of some agency officials.

A pair of oversight hearings — the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday — will give members of both parties a chance to press for more information about the investigation of the shooting of conservative activist Kirk at a college campus in Utah that has hit close to home for some lawmakers.

Patel on television has revealed details about the investigation and what the FBI found about motivations of the man arrested for the shooting, but his decision-making in the aftermath of the assassination of Kirk prompted anonymously sourced news articles raising questions about his leadership.

In the hours after the shooting, Patel posted on social media that “the subject for the horrific shooting” was in custody, only to post less than two hours later that the subject had been released. He appeared for a press conference in Utah on the shooting but did not speak.

It would be two days before authorities announced that the suspected shooter was in custody. Patel on Fox News on Monday said he was being transparent.

“Could I have worded it a little better in the heat of the moment? Sure. But do I regret putting it out? Absolutely not,” Kash said. “I was telling the world what the FBI was doing as we were doing, and I’m continuing to do that.”

Trump publicly backed Patel over the weekend, with the White House posting on social media Sunday the president’s comments that he was proud of the FBI: “Kash — and everyone else — they have done a great job.”

The oversight hearings will also be the first time judiciary lawmakers will get to question Patel since right-wing anger over the handling of the Epstein files spilled into the national spotlight.

This summer, the Justice Department and the FBI said in a memo that a review of the investigative material on Epstein revealed no “incriminating ‘client list.’” The memorandum also said that no other documents would be released.

Those comments stand in sharp contrast to Patel’s attitude before he took over as FBI director, according to a letter from Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top-ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

Before he started in the role, Patel told the public that the agency could release the Epstein files and that there was no reason for not releasing the information, Raskin wrote. Patel, during a podcast appearance before he was in office, said the FBI was not releasing the client list because of who is on it, the letter said.

“Now that you are the Director of the FBI, you know precisely who is implicated in the Epstein files, yet you refuse to release them. Who are you protecting and why?” Raskin’s letter read.

The Justice Department has provided Epstein-related records to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, after lawmakers subpoenaed the department. GOP committee leadership released approximately 33,300 pages of “Epstein-related records” it received from the department. But Democrats say their review found that 97 percent of the documents were already public.

“There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims,” said the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., in a statement.

The oversight hearings will also offer Democrats an opportunity to grill Patel over the firing and forcing out of career officials at the FBI, something they say reeks of politics, undermines the agency’s mission and harms the agency’s reputation.

Just last week, a former acting FBI director and two other officials filed a lawsuit against Patel and the FBI, saying the administration initiated a retribution campaign against them because of the perception they did not show enough political loyalty.

Patel not only violated the Constitution, the lawsuit said, but also chose to politicize the FBI over protecting the American public.

“His decision to do so degraded the country’s national security by firing three of the FBI’s most experienced operational leaders, each of them experts in preventing terrorism and reducing violent crime,” the lawsuit reads.

The oversight hearings will come months after Patel’s rocky appearances before a pair of appropriations subcommittees back in May. Patel told a House subcommittee that he was working to avoid hundreds of millions in cuts to the FBI that were outlined in the White House’s fiscal 2026 budget request.

A day later, before a Senate subcommittee panel, Patel gave his “full support” to the president’s budget request.

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