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Fellow conservatives question FBI chief\u2019s qualification to head agency as he braces for Senate and House inquiry.<\/em><\/p>\n FBI Director Kash Patel is bracing for United States congressional scrutiny over his leadership of the investigation into the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, following early reported missteps, including his erroneous announcement on social media that \u201cthe subject\u201d in the killing was in custody.<\/p>\n Patel is set to appear on Tuesday and Wednesday before the Senate and House judiciary committees, during which he is expected to answer questions not just about how the FBI handled the Kirk case, but also whether he can stabilise an agency fragmented by political fights and internal upheaval since his appointment, as toxic political divisions plague the nation.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/p>\n US President Donald Trump praised Patel on Saturday for the speed with which the bureau identified and captured Kirk\u2019s alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson.<\/p>\n But that has not stopped criticism even from fellow conservatives, who have started to wonder if Patel is qualified to head the country\u2019s top law enforcement body of 38,000 employees, including 13,000 agents.<\/p>\n In a statement posted on X on Friday, Christopher F Rufo, a fellow at the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute, wrote that it was \u201ctime for Republicans to assess whether Kash Patel is the right man to run the FBI\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHe performed terribly in the last few days, and it\u2019s not clear whether he has the operational expertise to investigate, infiltrate, and disrupt the violent movements \u2014 of whatever ideology \u2014 that threaten the peace in the United States,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been on the phone the last few days with many conservative leaders, all of whom wholeheartedly support the Trump Administration and none of whom are confident that the current structure of the FBI is up to this task,\u201d Rufo further said.<\/p>\n Conservative commentator Erick Erickson also weighed in, writing on X, \u201cThe FBI situation is concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n An earlier report by The Guardian newspaper said Patel was also ridiculed by far-right groups for his \u201cclumsy response\u201d to Kirk\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n The latest questions on Patel\u2019s qualifications arose hours after Kirk\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n While agents investigated, Patel posted on X: \u201cThe subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody.\u201d It turned out to be wrong. Patel soon after posted that the person in custody had been released.<\/p>\n Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, a Republican, described Patel\u2019s misstep as \u201camateur hour\u201d and questioned his professionalism.<\/p>\n As the search stretched on, Patel angrily vented to FBI personnel on Thursday about what he perceived as a failure to keep him informed, including that he was not quickly shown a photograph of the suspected shooter, according to The Associated Press news agency.<\/p>\n The day Kirk was killed, Patel also faced a lawsuit from three FBI senior executives fired in an August purge that they characterised as a Trump administration retribution campaign.<\/p>\n Among them was Brian Driscoll, who, as acting FBI director in the early days of the Trump administration, resisted Department of Justice demands for names of agents who investigated the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol.<\/p>\n Driscoll alleged in the lawsuit that he was let go after he challenged the leadership\u2019s desire to terminate an FBI pilot who had been wrongly identified on social media as having been part of the agency\u2019s search for classified documents at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago estate.<\/p>\n Patel is also facing other questions, including his pursuit of Trump\u2019s grievances long after the Russia investigation ended, and a realignment of resources that has prioritised the fight against illegal immigration and street crime.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of the scepticism that some members of the Senate have had and still have, it\u2019s extremely important that he perform very well at these oversight hearings,\u201d said Gregory Brower, the FBI\u2019s former top congressional affairs official.<\/p>\n The FBI declined to comment on Patel\u2019s coming testimony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow conservatives question FBI chief\u2019s qualification to head agency as he braces for Senate and House inquiry. FBI Director Kash Patel is bracing for United States congressional scrutiny over his leadership of the investigation into the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, following early reported missteps, including his erroneous announcement on social media that \u201cthe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[1249,376,2395,4156,12999,12560,13000,150,256,124,4148],"class_list":{"0":"post-21192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-congressional","9":"tag-death","10":"tag-faces","11":"tag-fbis","12":"tag-hearings","13":"tag-kirk","14":"tag-missteps","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-patel","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-probe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n