The Latest: FBI Director Kash Patel clashes with Democrats at congressional hearing

FBI Director Kash Patel clashed with skeptical Democrats at a contentious Senate oversight hearing Tuesday defending his record amid criticism that he has politicized the nation s premier federal law enforcement agency and pursued retribution against perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump The appearance Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee represented the first oversight hearing of Patel s young but tumultuous tenure and provided a high-stakes platform for him to try to demonstrate that he is the right person for the job at a time of internal upheaval and mounting concerns about political violence inside the United States Patel faced questions from senators about the examination into Charlie Kirk s killing the situation against sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the firings of senior FBI leaders who have accused Patel of illegal political retribution The Latest National Guard plan stirs up mixed feelings from Memphis residents Trump s plan to send the National Guard into Memphis for a crime-fighting push has selected residents worried that it won t help people who are struggling and could scare off visitors Others disagree with that sentiment so much that they re offering free barbecue for the troops before they even arrive They want us to be there They don t want to be mugged Who would say Gee I don t want the National Guard the president announced in the Oval Office Britney Thornton the commissioner representing Orange Mound one of the oldest Black neighborhoods in majority-Black Memphis has a different perspective She noted there s a huge disconnect between the decision-makers deploying the guard and Memphians who know the necessities of the society Lax state gun laws combined with a lack of access to basics like teaching and food are the true drivers of crime mentioned Thornton who also runs a nonprofit that provides necessities to low-income people in the area Read more about reactions from residents Social Precaution beneficiary facts has not been mishandled commissioner says Social Precaution Commissioner Frank Bisignano sent a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo stating that the administration s beneficiaries private information has not been compromised following a whistleblower disclosure last month that material was put at threat I can confirm based on the agency s thorough review that neither the Numident database nor any of its statistics has been accessed leaked hacked or shared in any unauthorized fashion Bisignano commented in the Tuesday letter Whistleblower Charles Borges stated in an August disclosure that more than million Americans Social Safety statistics was put at liability after Department of Regime Efficiency personnel uploaded sensitive information to an account not subject to oversight Borges resigned from his position as chief input officer at the Social Safeguard Administration days after the complaint Potentially sensitive information that risks being disclosed includes healthcare diagnoses income banking information familial relationships and personal biographic material At least migrant children cleared for return to Guatemala were abuse casualties whistleblower review says The head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement falsely advised a judge that all children cleared for return to Guatemala last month would not be subject to child abuse and neglect according to the record submitted to Congress on Tuesday The assessment prepared by attorneys for the Governing body Accountability Project says at least children were casualties of abuse including death threats gang violence and human trafficking The overview says Office of Refugee Resettlement acting Director Angie Salazar knew or should have known that her statements to a judge Sept were inaccurate The Soundness and Human Services Department which includes the Office of Refugee Resettlement didn t this instant respond to a request for comment The whistleblower assessment was submitted to Sens John Cornyn a Texas Republican and Alex Padilla a California Democrat Former AG Barr communicated House committee he spoke twice with Trump about Epstein Former Attorney General William Barr stated a House committee that he had limited conversations about Epstein with Trump during his first term after the financier killed himself in his New York jail cell One was when I heard about the suicide I called him up and revealed You better brace for this Barr reported in a transcript of a deposition that was disclosed by the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday He had the same reaction I did which was How the hell did that happen he s in federal custody Barr added later in the deposition Barr declared he also discussed the sex trafficking charges against Epstein one other time in a conversation with Trump and the president revealed he had broken off his relationship with Epstein years before Democrats on the committee mentioned Barr s testimony did not exonerate Trump of wrongdoing Trump and EU s von der Leyen talk about increasing pressure on Russia for its war on Ukraine European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in post on X following Tuesday s call that she and Trump discussed strengthening our joint efforts to increase economic pressure on Russia through additional measures Trump earlier in the day once again called on Europe to stem its purchase of Russian oil and urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to get a deal done with Russia s Vladimir Putin to end the war Putin however has shown scant interest in Trump s effort to arrange one-on-one talks with Zelenskyy Zelenskyy is going to have to make a deal and Europe has to stop buying oil from Russia Trump declared Von der Leyen noted the commission will soon present its th package of sanctions against Russia since the start of the war She added that the new sanctions will target Russian interests in crypto banks and force Governors chair says Kirk killing should cause Americans to reflect The chairman of the National Governors Association revealed Americans need to do particular self-reflection in the wake of conservative leader Charlie Kirk s shooting death and realize that We agree on a lot more than we disagree Republican Gov Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma made his comments during a Zoom news conference with the NGA s vice chair Democratic Gov Wes Moore of Maryland They had the event to stress governors aid for tuition We need to just tamp down the rhetoric Stitt explained adding that it s a bipartisan sentiment He disclosed people agree that they want the best teaching for their children and the best economic system and the best roads and bridges People are looking for leadership People are looking for common sense Stitt commented That s lacking right now especially when the fringes are in control of specific of the media House Democratic leader asks if Trump is turning down the rhetoric Leader Hakeem Jeffries pushed back against a proposal to punish a lawmaker for their comments in the aftermath of the Kirk assassination and instead revealed leaders should be lifting people up The question that should be requested is Has the president brought the rhetoric down he mentioned at a press conference at the Capitol We need to come together not as Democrats or Republicans or independents but as Americans New Pentagon framework says troops can only be exempt from shaving for a year Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered that troops across all the services who need an exemption from shaving for longer than a year should now be kicked out of the arrangement In an Aug memo that was made masses Monday Hegseth stated that while commanders are still able to issue function members exemptions from shaving a strategy that has existed for decades those exemptions will now have to come with a physiological healing plan Troops who still need medicine after one year will be separated from organization the memo decreed Most of shaving waivers are for troops diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae or PFB a condition in which hairs curl back into the skin after shaving and cause irritation It is a condition that disproportionately affects Black men The memo is silent on what treatments the military would offer for troops impacted by the new procedures or if it will front the cost for those treatments Attorneys for immigrant children allege poor conditions persist at detention facility Attorneys defending immigrant families held in federal custody are alleging such things as bottled water for sale a child with appendicitis notified to wait three days and families issued from custody only to be re-detained The declarations are part of an ongoing lawsuit where the federal executive is requesting to end protections for immigrant children Since the unlicensed detention center in Dilley Texas started holding families when it reopened in March families broadcasted long detention stays children fighting adults for clean water and a lack of adequate diagnostic care The federal judge presiding over this development last month requested more information about the length of detention for children ICE provided a account that explained the children in custody over hours went down from six days to five days in June and July respectively But attorneys representing the children who reviewed the assessment explained the governing body has held several children for over a week and often without justification Illinois governor says Trump losing it over National Guard inconsistency JB Pritzker a frequent Trump critic accused the president of being forgetful and unreliable suggesting he might be suffering from particular dementia When he explained that he wasn t coming to Chicago I didn t trust that Pritzker announced Tuesday When he says he is coming to Chicago it s hard to believe anything he says Trump has vowed to send military troops to the nation s third-largest city but repeatedly changed his statements He s explained he d prefer cooperative cities but on Tuesday again mentioned Chicago as a possibility for the next deployment Elected leaders and numerous residents strongly oppose any federal intervention Microsoft says it will invest B in the UK through The expenditure includes billion in capital expenditures to build out cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure A project with British company Nscale aims to build the nation s largest supercomputer running on more than advanced graphics processor chips We re focused on British pounds not empty tech promises because it s easy to have big numbers but we will be good for every cent of this financing Microsoft s president Brad Smith advised reporters Tuesday He disclosed the investments were separate from those made through the Stargate project and Microsoft s longtime partner OpenAI maker of ChatGPT which is increasingly trying to set its own discipline without the program giant s help Smith credited the U K s regulatory stability and its commitment to expanding the supply of electricity needed to power statistics centers He stated Microsoft didn t receive any request from the Trump administration to make the announcement Crime casualties targeted in immigration crackdown A man detained by functionaries days after he nearly died in an Iowa shooting is one of a growing number of crime casualties who have been targeted in the Trump administration s crackdown on illegal immigration Felipe de Jesus Hernandez Marcelo was shot in June during an attempted robbery in Muscatine Iowa and has been detained since shortly after he got out of the hospital In January Immigration and Customs Enforcement rescinded a guidelines that had shielded a great number of casualties from detention and removal The number of people applying for visas that allow specific casualties to remain in the country has plummeted since then Others have been detained unexpectedly by ICE as they go through the lengthy application process Read more about how ICE is moving to deport more casualties of crime Trump again delays enforcement of TikTok ban Trump is extending a deadline for the social media app TikTok to shut down It will be the fourth time that Trump has ignored federal law and extended a deadline for TikTok to go out of business Trump has signed an executive order to keep TikTok operating a day after he reported he d reached a framework deal with China to keep it operating Trump forms federal board to prevent strike on nation s largest commuter rail system The president issued an executive order creating a Presidential Emergency Board meant to resolve a contract dispute that nearly triggered a strike on the Long Island Railroad this week Once again President Trump is stepping up when Democrats have failed Kush Desai a White House spokesperson explained in an apparent dig at Democratic New York Gov Kathy Hochul Unionized LIRR workers voted to authorize a strike on Monday but also approved seeking federal intervention The move pushed the possibility of a strike at least into January Netanyahu invited back to the White House The Israeli prime minister says Trump had invited him to visit on Sept after he addresses the United Nations General Assembly It will be Netanyahu s fourth visit to the White House since Trump assumed office in January Democratic governors warn Congress it should not let ACA tax credits expire A group of Democratic governors is urging congressional leaders to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits They write in a letter that letting the credits expire would cause harm that will be felt for years The appeal comes as Congress is moving toward a likely governing body shutdown with Republicans and Democrats at odds over how to continue the tax credits that have made wellbeing insurance more affordable for millions The Democratic governors wrote that these subsidies are the only reason medical insurance is still within reach in a country where the cost of living keeps going up The letter was sent Monday and advised both Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate that this isn t a partisan issue White House Pentagon mum on details after Trump says US knocked off third alleged Venezuelan drug boat Neither offered any further on-the-record detail after Trump suggested the U S military had carried out an operation on a third vessel from Venezuela Requested earlier on Tuesday by a reporter about Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro s angry response to two military strikes carried out by the U S military in up-to-date weeks on alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Trump replied We knocked off authentically three boats not two The Pentagon referred questions to the White House which has not provided details about where and when the third military operation took place Trump says Republicans will hold a very exciting midterm political convention Trump says on social media that Republicans will hold the gathering to highlight the great things we have done since he was reelected in The convention s date and location are still to come Trump says But he promised that it will be quite the Event and very exciting Trump first floated the idea after news reports that the Democratic Party was considering its own gathering before the midterm elections to highlight candidates and garner attention as the party aims to regain control of both houses of Congress next year FBI director wraps up his testimony Patel has finished testifying after a contentious -hour hearing before Congress The final round of questioning for the FBI director came from Republican Sen Thom Tillis of North Carolina Tillis issued a call to both sides of the aisle including fellow conservatives to tone down the rhetoric in the face of escalating political violence in the U S How on earth are we de-escalating the situation with the tensions as high as they were last week with going out and saying we re at war Tillis explained There are people out here on our side of the aisle that still need to look in the mirror Patel shouts down Sen Adam Schiff The FBI director shouted over the California Democrat during questioning on how the Trump administration has handled the Jeffrey Epstein files and Epstein s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate Patel shouted at Schiff You are a political buffoon at best Patel added Schiff tried to yell over him saying You can make an internet troll the FBI director but he will invariably be nothing more than an internet troll Sen Chuck Grassley Republican chairman of the Senate Judicial Committee pounded his gavel repeatedly but Patel continued The feud between Patel and Schiff dates back years to when Patel was a staffer on the House Intelligence Committee and Schiff was a House member Congresswoman says hundreds of immigration arrests in Chicago U S Rep Lauren Underwood of Illinois says immigration agents have arrested people in the Chicago area since a new enforcement campaign was disclosed last week The Democrat is a member of the Homeland Measure Subcommittee on Appropriations and got the information after a requested briefing with immigration agents She shared details late Monday Underwood says the arrests began Sept two days earlier than a venture touted as Midway Blitz was publicly publicized She says the operation would include the entire state of Illinois and neighboring Lake County in Indiana Top administration authorities arrived in Chicago Tuesday potentially signaling a more aggressive phase of immigration enforcement DHS agents have not responded to questions about the number of arrests in the Chicago area Trump is intensifying immigration enforcement in Boston Immigrants are being detained in various locations sparking fear and leading certain people to stay home Advocates review increased activity from U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement with unmarked vehicles targeting work vans and staking out neighborhoods with large immigrant populations One Metro Boston city canceled its Hispanic Heritage Month festival due to safety concerns ICE s Patriot operation follows a previous crackdown in Boston The U S Department of Justice has also filed a lawsuit against Boston over its so-called sanctuary policies Advocates argue the city s agenda of limiting cooperation with ICE keeps the city safe and ensures Boston remains a place for all residents Opponents argue challenging the federal authorities risks much-needed federal funding and allows criminals to walk the streets Read more about ICE detentions intensifying in so-called sanctuary cities Patel defends social media post about Kirk subject in custody Patel had posted in the hours after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk that the subject was in custody even though the actual suspect was still at large I don t see it as a mistake I see it as something working with the community to identify that there was a subject in custody Patel explained senators He commented he wished to inform the masses that a subject had been arrested even though that person did not end up being the suspect in the shooting He communicated senators Could I have been more careful in my verbiage and mentioned we had a subject instead of the subject Sure Sen Peter Welch a Vermont Democrat pushed back saying it caused confusion by making it sound like bureaucrats had caught the person suspected of killing Kirk Patel shot back by saying That s not what I declared Senate Democrats concerned over military lawyers as immigration judges A group of Democratic senators say they are deeply concerned that a Pentagon plan to allow military lawyers to work as temporary immigration judges will violate a ban on using utility members for law enforcement and affect the military justice system The letter sent to the military services and provided to The Associated Press comes two weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved sending up to military lawyers to the Justice Department to serve as temporary immigration judges It is among the procedures the Trump administration has taken to use the military in broader options than previously seen particularly in its immigration crackdown including sending the National Guard into American cities and deploying operational duty troops to the U S -Mexico territory line These military officers would serve under the command and control of the Attorney General and would execute administrative determinations at the direction of the Attorney General according to the letter signed by Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee It added that these actions are inherently law enforcement actions that may not be performed by members of the armed forces Indiana governor says redistricting is inevitable Republican Gov Mike Braun disclosed that the redistricting conversation is moving and it s likely inevitable But he doesn t want to call a special session unless there will be a profitable outcome I ve been very clear I want it to be organic he stated in a video informed by WRTV in Indianapolis Indiana GOP lawmakers have been hesitant about redistricting while Texas and Missouri barrel ahead emblematic of Indiana s independent streak Braun noted a special session could happen any time after November The GOP legislative caucuses met last week to discuss redistricting a scant weeks after visiting the White House Pennsylvania governor says US must turn the tide against political violence reject vengeance Gov Josh Shapiro says the nation must turn the tide against political violence and the belief that ruling body can t solve problems while also rejecting vengeance Shapiro a Democrat delivered the remarks at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh Shapiro reported leaders must condemn all forms of political violence and shouldn t use violence as a pretext for more violence or to prosecute constitutionally protected speech Shapiro also criticized Trump saying particular people in the dark corners of the internet all the way to the Oval Office want to cherry-pick which instances of political violence they want to condemn In April Shapiro and his family fled the governor s official residence in the middle of the night after an alleged arsonist set it on fire in an attempt to kill Shapiro Mayor responds to Dividing line Patrol head in Chicago signs executive order protecting right to protest Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson mentioned he has had no direct conversations with the White House or Confines Patrol and reaffirmed that Chicago police would not collaborate with ICE I get that people are feeling a level of anxiety but they should be assured that we re going to work with all of our stakeholders to make sure the people of Chicago are safe and supported he mentioned at a news conference following his signing of an executive order aiming to protect the right to protest The order states that if federal law enforcement disrupts peaceful protests Chicago police will collaborate with protest organizers to develop a mutually acceptable alternative plan Johnson revealed the order was an attempt to be proactive amid federal intervention and after protesters clashed with federal immigration agents Friday outside an ICE processing facility in Broadview Illinois House Republicans release short-term measure to avoid shutdown They unveiled a stopgap spending bill to keep the federal regime through Nov The bill generally funds agencies at current levels though there is an extra million to boost safeguard for lawmakers and members of the Supreme Court and the executive branch The House is expected to vote on the measure by Friday The budget year draws to a close at the end of the month and Congress has yet to approve funding levels for the coming fiscal year So lawmakers will need to pass a stopgap measure to keep agencies funded while they work out their differences for the full year Democratic leaders have insisted that Republicans negotiate with them on the spending bill to protect vitality insurance coverage for millions of Americans But Republicans leaders have rebuffed those demands and say those discussions are for another time and would not be part of the continuing resolution Any spending bill that passes will need various help from Democrats in the Senate as the measure will need at least votes to advance to a final vote Patel hearing explodes in fiery exchange with Sen Cory Booker Patel and the New Jersey Democrat got into a shouting match as Booker charged that Patel is responsible for a generational destruction of the nation s premier law enforcement agency Patel fired back at Booker telling him that he was an embarrassment For several moments the Republican chairman of the committee Sen Chuck Grassley pounded his gavel but struggled to gain control of the two men Still Booker predicted that Patel would not last long in his post He described Patel that Trump will cut you loose This may be the last time I have a hearing with you Patel pushes back on Democrats saying he got job because of Trump loyalty Patel took the opportunity to give a fiery retort to Democratic senators who say the reason he got the job was his loyalty to Trump Patel s leadership of the FBI has been marked by turmoil and Democratic accusations that he s using the law enforcement agency to carry out Trump s goals But Patel notified the Senate panel that it was an entire falsehood to suggest that he only got the job because he was a Trump loyalist Patel pointed to his experience as an attorney congressional staffer and administration official saying There was no loyalty then There s no loyalty now to anything but the Constitution Source