President Donald Trump’s FBI director nominee Kash Patel was grilled Thursday over the FBI’s investigation into alleged Trump-Russia connections in the aftermath of the 2016 election, known colloquially by its nickname ‘Crossfire Hurricane,’ and which has emerged as something of a partisan lightning rod in the years since the investigation was closed.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for his part, used most of his allotted time Thursday to grill Patel over his views on the investigation, which he has railed against as politically motivated and a ‘disgusting’ use of FBI resources.
Patel was tapped in 2017 by then-House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes to join the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe – an investigation that was widely praised by Republicans as helping discredit the FBI’s inquest.
‘Is it fair to say that the people in charge of investigating Crossfire Hurricane hated Trump’s guts?’ Graham asked Patel on Thursday during his confirmation hearing.
‘Yes, sir,’ Patel responded.
Graham added, ‘Do you believe that Crossfire Hurricane was one of the most disgusting episodes in FBI history of a corrupt investigation led by corrupt people who wanted to take Donald Trump down?’
After Patel responded affirmatively, Graham continued to excoriate what he sees as the politicization of the FBI, which he claimed is ‘ignoring evidence, making up evidence, and lying to get Donald Trump.’
FBI agents were telling anybody and everybody would listen that [the investigation] is not reliable, this is not trustworthy. But they plowed on,’ Graham added.
‘That’s why you’re in this chair today to fix that,’ said Graham. ‘Without Crossfire Hurricane, this guy wouldn’t be here.’
Patel is a close ally of President Trump and served in the first Trump administration both as a deputy assistant and as the senior director for counterterrorism.
His nomination has sparked early criticism from some Democrats ahead of his confirmation hearing, who have cited his previous vows to prosecute journalists and career officials at the Justice Department and FBI that he sees as being part of the ‘deep state.’
He has since attempted to clarify some of those remarks.