FBI Director Kash Patel Declines to Say Lying to Congress Is a Crime

FBI Director Kash Patel declined to directly answer whether lying to Congress is a crime during a Senate subcommittee hearing held today. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, asked Patel the question toward the end of the hearing. Patel responded by saying "I have not lied to Congress" and accused the senator of lying.

Van Hollen later stated that the director did not want to answer the question about whether it is a crime to lie to Congress. The hearing also included leaders of the Drug Enforcement Agency, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

It was originally expected to focus on budget matters but turned to recent press reports about the FBI.

In mid-April, The Atlantic reported on concerns inside the Trump administration about what FBI sources described as excessive drinking and unexplained absences by Patel. A follow-up story reported on personalized bourbon bottles Patel has handed out as gifts.

Patel has denied the allegations and sued The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick for defamation, demanding $250 million. The FBI has rejected as "completely false" a report that Fitzpatrick is the focus of an FBI criminal-leak investigation. Multiple outlets also reported earlier this spring that Patel had fired agents from a task force monitoring threats from Iran days before the Trump administration launched a war against Iran.

The agents had been involved in an investigation into the president's alleged removal of classified documents to Mar-a-Lago. Patel has denied those reports, saying the agents were fired for unspecified violations of ethical obligations.

Hollen said in his opening statement that he did not care about Patel's private life unless it interfered with public responsibilities. He said the allegations, if true, demonstrate a gross dereliction of duty. Patel responded by accusing Van Hollen of slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gangbanging rapist, referring to the senator's meeting with an imprisoned immigrant whom the administration had mistakenly deported.

The reference to a convicted rapist is inaccurate, as the individual has been indicted for human smuggling but has pleaded not guilty and no evidence shows a rape conviction. When Sen. Chris Coons asked about the cost of Patel's trip to Milan during the Olympics, where he was taped chugging beer with the U.S. hockey team, Patel did not answer.

Coons also asked about the firing of agents with Iran expertise. Patel said he did not believe the reporting and disagreed that 10 Iran specialists were dismissed right before the war began. Sen. Patty Murray cited figures showing FBI agents had been reassigned to immigration enforcement.

Patel denied that. Committee Republicans largely did not address the reports, though Sen. John Kennedy asked Patel about the importance of traveling to talk with line agents to maintain morale. Patel offered some clarifications during the hearing. He allowed that some of the fired agents may have had Iran expertise but denied they were Iran experts.

He clarified that no FBI agents have been permanently reassigned to immigration.