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Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., sharply criticized Kash Patel’s tenure as FBI director Wednesday, telling reporters that he seen Patel’s management as deeply partisan and a “horrible tragedy” for the nation’s sprawling legislation enforcement company.
Talking at a information convention alongside former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and different Home Democrats, Schiff took umbrage at Patel’s testimony in the future earlier earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee — which Schiff stated additional crystallized his issues about politicization inside the bureau.
The FBI “has been the premier legislation enforcement company within the nation, and the world, as a result of they have been consistently skilled and non-partisan,” Schiff stated Wednesday, noting the shut working relationship he had with FBI brokers in the course of the years he spent as a federal prosecutor.
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Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., speaks to reporters outdoors the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 17, 2025. (Breanne Deppisch/Fox Information Digital)
“It’s a horrible tragedy, I believe, for the women and men of the bureau to have such poor management that’s changing experience with incompetence, that’s changing non-partisanship with probably the most rabid partisanship,” Schiff instructed Fox Information Digital. “And this isn’t unrelated to why we’re right here in the present day.”
His remarks come as Patel appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a second day of testimony earlier than the Senate and Home Judiciary Committees.
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Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks to reporters at a information convention outdoors the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 17, 2025. (Breanne Deppisch/Fox Information Digital)
Each hearings had been marked by sharp traces of questioning from Democrats, who grilled Patel on points starting from a flurry of FBI firings, the bureau’s dealing with of the Epstein information and issues of politicization, amongst many different issues.
Schiff, particularly, pressed Patel on his tenure on the FBI, saying the bureau’s brokers — principally assigned to its 52 area places of work throughout the nation and loath to see their work politicized — needed to know what, if any, marching orders Patel had acquired from President Donald Trump.
The heated back-and-forth devolved right into a shouting match between the 2, as Schiff pressed Patel repeatedly over the firings of FBI brokers and whether or not these people had been eliminated for political causes.
Patel, for his half, described Schiff as a “political buffoon.”
Chatting with reporters Wednesday, Schiff stated Patel’s look did little to assuage his broader fears of weaponization inside the bureau.
“You’ll be able to’t have a vibrant democracy with out the rule of legislation,” he instructed Fox Information Digital. “You’ll be able to’t have the rule of legislation in case you have a weaponized FBI and a weaponized Justice Division — and sadly, that is what we’ve got right here in the present day,” Schiff stated.
FBI brokers stroll via a criminal offense scene. (Getty Photographs)
He additionally weighed in on Patel’s remarks yesterday on the Epstein information — one other situation that sparked intense criticism from lawmakers, after Patel claimed Tuesday that there was “no credible proof” that Jeffrey Epstein was trafficking girls apart from himself.
Schiff stated it was a “startling declare,” significantly from somebody who had beforehand promoted the idea that Epstein maintained an unlimited consumer listing of highly effective folks.
“So it was utterly contradictory to all the things he stated up to now,” he stated. He additionally famous Patel’s “refusal” to reply his questions on why Deputy Lawyer Normal Todd Blanche declined to press Ghislaine Maxwell additional on the Cupboard members she recognized as being “shut” to Epstein or having a relationship with him throughout a two-day interview in July.
“Blanche refused to ask who they had been, and simply ignored her remark.”
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“And that is, once more, the form of incompetence we’re seeing,” he stated, including: “Incompetence might be probably the most well mannered factor I can describe, but it surely definitely seems like a cover-up.”
The Justice Division and FBI have struggled to quell the mounting public strain on them to launch extra info associated to the Epstein investigation — underscoring the story’s sticking energy in a fast-moving information cycle, and amongst Trump supporters, who’ve been a few of the main voices in demanding the knowledge be launched.
