The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to advance Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the F.B.I., paving the way for a floor vote on his confirmation as the bureau is wracked by a bitter conflict between its temporary leaders and the Trump administration.
The vote, 12 to 10, fell along party lines. In forwarding Mr. Patel’s nomination to the full Senate, Republicans on the committee dismissed Democrats’ demands for an additional hearing to question Mr. Patel about a host of issues.
Those include grand jury testimony he gave in a criminal investigation of Donald J. Trump that remains sealed and whether Mr. Patel had been involved in a series of dismissals across the bureau. At his confirmation hearing, he denied knowing or remembering being part of any such discussions.
Mr. Patel, 44, has made attacking the F.B.I. a personal brand — in a book called “Government Gangsters,” in a series of television and podcast interviews, and in his longtime role as a trusted adviser to the president.
Republican lawmakers have embraced the choice of Mr. Patel, arguing that the F.B.I. treated conservatives unfairly during the Biden administration.
Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the committee’s chairman, said firings were needed at the F.B.I., which was “long overdue for massive reform.”
“Mr. Patel is the man to do it,” he said.
Mr. Patel has vowed to clear out F.B.I. headquarters and turn it into a museum, fire the agency’s leadership and punish what he calls the “deep state” conspiracy against Mr. Trump.
But at his confirmation hearing, Mr. Patel struck a far different tone, vowing that “all F.B.I. employees will be protected against political retribution.” Yet even as he was being grilled on live television, Trump administration officials were in the process of forcing out many of the bureau’s senior leaders, prompting Democrats to question whether Mr. Patel was secretly involved in those discussions.
Senator Richard J. Durbin, the top Democrat on the panel, noted that for the past half century, all the F.B.I.’s confirmed directors have been Republicans who tried to keep the bureau above politics. Mr. Patel would be far different, he said, adding, “We are inviting a political disaster.”
Mr. Patel’s easy approval by the Republican-controlled committee comes at a time of great unease within the F.B.I. that the Trump administration will move to punish not just leaders but rank-and-file agents for their roles in investigating Mr. Trump, his allies and those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Last week, F.B.I. officials submitted information about roughly 5,000 agents, analysts and support staff members who worked on the Jan. 6 cases. The list was in response to an order from the acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove III. They have also compiled a list of about 3,600 F.B.I. employees who are still on probationary status, and therefore may more easily be dismissed.
People familiar with internal discussions between the F.B.I. and the Justice Department have said the administration has discussed ousting hundreds of agents, seemingly in violation of decades-old civil service laws meant to protect the integrity and professionalism of the government work force.
Mr. Trump said last week that he would fire agents, and Attorney General Pam Bondi seconded that in an interview on Fox News on Wednesday. “Are there bad people in there? Yes,” she said. “Will we find them? Yes. Will we root them out? Absolutely.”
The majority of F.B.I. agents are “great people,” she added. “I think most of the problems are in upper management.”
The prospect of firings has already led to tensions. Mr. Bove has accused the acting leaders of the F.B.I., Brian J. Driscoll and his deputy, Robert C. Kissane, of “insubordination,” for their resistance to gathering information about agents.
In the memo, Mr. Bove claimed he would never have issued such an order if F.B.I. leaders had not refused his earlier request for more limited information about agents involved in the Jan. 6 cases.
At turns both defensive and accusatory, Mr. Bove insisted that the only agents who should be concerned “are those who acted with partisan intent, who blatantly defied orders from department leadership or who exercised discretion in weaponizing the F.B.I.”
He continued, “There is no honor in the ongoing efforts to distort that simple truth or protect culpable actors from scrutiny on these issues.”
In response to lawsuits by some agents and the F.B.I. Agents Association, a court has barred the administration from releasing the names of agents on the list turned over to the Justice Department.
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