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The Senate voted to advance the confirmation of FBI director nominee Kash Patel on Thursday.
A vote to invoke cloture and begin up to 30 hours of debate on the nominee passed 51 to 47.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted earlier this month, 12 to 10, to advance Patel to the full floor for a vote.
Still, Patel faced a somewhat rockier path to confirmation, even in the Republican-majority chamber, after Democrats on the panel used their political weight to delay Patel’s confirmation vote earlier this month.
TRUMP FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE KASH PATEL PICKS UP SUPPORT FROM KEY GOP SENATOR
Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s choice to be director of the FBI, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Top Judiciary Democrat Dick Durbin claimed on the Senate floor that Patel had been behind recent mass firings at the FBI, citing what he described as “highly credible” whistleblower reports indicating Patel had personally directed the ongoing purge of FBI employees prior to his confirmation.
But that was sharply refuted by Senate Republicans, who described the allegation as a baseless and politically motivated attempt to delay Patel’s confirmation, and by a Patel aide, who described Durbin’s claim as categorically false.
This person told Fox News Digital that Patel flew home to Las Vegas after his confirmation hearing and had “been sitting there waiting for the process to play out.”
Patel, a vociferous opponent to the investigations into President Donald Trump and one who served at the forefront of Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims, vowed during his confirmation hearing last month that he would not engage in political retribution against agents who worked on the classified documents case against Trump and other politically sensitive matters.
But his confirmation comes at a time when the FBI’s activities, leadership, and personnel…
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