Washington, D.C. — Today, during a Senate Judiciary Committee, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) warned of Kash Patel’s unfitness to lead the FBI due to a lack of transparency on his foreign investments and grand jury testimony. Schiff also discussed President Donald Trump’s weaponization of government.
Watch the full clip HERE. Download remarks HERE.
Key Excerpts:
On Kash Patel’s unfitness to lead the FBI:
[…] This is a guy also who was called before the grand jury, first probably nominee for FBI director in history called before the grand jury, refused to testify in a criminal case without getting immunity. Plead the fifth, demanded immunity. This is going to be the FBI director. A guy who won’t testify in a case investigated by the FBI without getting immunity. A guy who has, I guess, stock options worth $1 to $5 million from a company financed by the Chinese Communist Party. And we still don’t know what he did to earn $1 to $5 million from a company affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party who made money from some Czechoslovak group, an arms conglomerate with ties to Putin. We still don’t really know what he did to earn money from them, either. This is really astounding that we are where we are.
I’ve known Kash Patel since he was a staffer for Devin Nunes. He is not someone you would ever think of when you think of fidelity, bravery, integrity, not when he was a staffer, not when he was in the Trump administration. In fact, the people who spoke speak most damningly of Kash Patel are the people who worked with him in the administration. People like Bill Barr, who, for a lesser position, said “over my dead body” when asked about Kash Patel. And it is just a tragedy for the FBI that it comes to this. I can’t imagine the demoralization at the FBI and at the Department of Justice. The damage will be long, long standing.
On Trump’s government weaponization propaganda:
[…] Yes, this president was indicted more than any other president in history because this president committed more crimes than any other president in history. And let’s look at what he was indicted for, because we can’t just talk about this in the abstract. He was indicted for inciting a violent attack on the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power. And yes, he’s the only president ever to be indicted on those charges, because he’s the only president to have incited a violent attack on the Capitol. That doesn’t mean a double standard was applied to Mr. Trump. It means the rule of law was applied to Mr. Trump. Indeed, the fact he was charged was a vindication of the rule of law that we are a nation of laws, not a nation of men. It was an affirmation of that principle, not its abrogation.
[…]
Let’s not, let’s not suggest, let’s not market, let’s not propagandize about some weaponization, some double standard when grand juries found probable cause to believe he committed these crimes. And the only case that was actually allowed to go to trial, the jury found him guilty on every single charge. Now, my colleagues on the other side say we have to restore confidence in the Department of Justice and the FBI because the public has such low confidence in them. Well, yes, of course, the public has low confidence in the department. The department has been trashed by the former and now current president for years.
Of course, with that kind of circular logic, there’s a low opinion of the Department and the Bureau, because it’s been trashed for years. And why has it been trashed? Because the people at the Department of Justice and the FBI had the audacity to believe what we were saying. That is, there is one standard for the rule of law. It applies to everyone equally. It even applies to the high and mighty. It even applies the President of the United States.
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