FBI Director Kash Patel is confronting skeptical Senate Democrats at a congressional hearing Tuesday that's likely to be dominated by questions about the investigation into Charlie Kirk’s killing as well as the firings of senior officials who have accused him of illegal political retribution.
Patel's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee is the first oversight hearing of his young but tumultuous tenure and provides a high-stakes platform for him to try to reassure wary lawmakers that he is the right
person for the job at a time of internal upheaval and mounting concerns about political violence inside the U.S., which President Donald Trump has sought to blame squarely on the left.
Vice President JD Vance called on the public to turn in anyone who says distasteful things about his friend and political ally, a staunch free speech advocate. “When you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out,” Vance said Monday. “And hell, call their employer.”
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He has faced some criticism from conservative corners about how he has led the FBI in the wake of the shooting, but Patel told the Senate panel that his agency — “at my direction” — successfully brought the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s killing into custody.
He also has touted the number of arrests made by the FBI, saying it represents an increase from the Biden administration.
“We are leading the mission to crush violent crime and defend the homeland,” Patel said.
“We’re going to see what happens, because I hear Hamas is trying to use the old human shield deal. And if they do that, they’re going to be in big trouble,” Trump said.
Trump in a Monday post on Truth Social said that he had read a news report indicating that Hamas would use the captives as “human shields.”
The Israeli military began a ground offensive targeting Gaza City on Tuesday, slowly squeezing in on the Palestinian territory’s largest city that has seen block after block already destroyed in the Israel-Hamas war. Residents still in the city were warned they must leave and head south. The push marks yet another escalation in a conflict that has roiled the Middle East as any potential ceasefire feels even further out of reach despite months of diplomacy.
▶ Read more on the latest developments causing tension in the Mideast
The president said, “they’ve been friends of mine for a long time,” called the king an “elegant gentleman” and said, “I think he represents the country so well.”
The president, speaking as he was leaving the White House, said that U.K. officials want to continue trade negotiations during his coming visit.
“They’d like to see if they can get a little bit better deal, so we’ll talk to them” he said.
The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, opened his remarks by criticizing Patel for the removal of career FBI officials and the diversion of agents to help with immigration enforcement.
Durbin called Patel “arguably the most partisan FBI director ever,” saying he has “already inflicted untold damage on the FBI.” Durbin accused Patel of putting the country’s “national security and public safety at risk.”
The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee opened the hearing by running through a list of GOP criticisms of FBI investigations related to politics.
Those ranged from the prosecution of White House adviser Peter Navarro for his response to a congressional subpoena, to the probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
He also pledged to release new whistleblower records.
Republican Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley opened the hearing expressing sympathy for the fatal shooting last week of Charlie Kirk, which is under FBI investigation.
Grassley decried Kirk’s “political assassination,” calling Kirk a “man of God, faith, family and country.”
Prosecutors are preparing to file a capital murder charge Tuesday against the Utah man who authorities say held a “leftist ideology” and may have been “radicalized” online before he was arrested in the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Charges against 22-year-old Tyler Robinson are expected to come ahead of Tuesday’s first court hearing since he was accused last week of shooting Kirk, a conservative activist credited with energizing the Republican youth movement and helping Donald Trump win back the White House in 2024.
U.S. indices were mostly higher early Tuesday after Wall Street set new records and investor expectation grew that the Federal Reserve will announce its first interest rate cut of 2025 on Wednesday.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.2% before the bell Tuesday while Big Tech stocks pulled Nasdaq futures 0.3% higher. Futures for the Dow Jones industrials were unchanged.
Oracle shares jumped 5% on speculation it would play a major part in the U.S.-China deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. after the Trump administration announced the framework of a trade deal on Monday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said after the latest round of trade talks between the world’s two largest economies that Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping would speak Friday to possibly finalize the deal.
Shoppers increased their spending at a better-than-expected pace in August from July, helped by back-to-school purchases, even as Trump’s tariffs are starting to hurt the job market and lead to price hikes.
Retail sales rose 0.6% last month from July, when sales were up a revised 0.6%, according to the Commerce Department’s report. The performance, announced Tuesday, was also likely helped by the continued efforts by Americans to keep pushing up purchases ahead of expected price increases, and higher prices could be bolstering the number as well.
Citing an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship Fulton County District Attorney had with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, the Georgia Court of Appeals had ruled that she and her office not continue to prosecute the case. election interference case against Donald Trump and others.
Steve Sadow, Trump’s attorney in the Georgia case, said in a statement that Willis “deserved nothing less than disqualification.” A spokesperson for Willis did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
The decision means it will be up to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia to find another prosecutor, who could continue on the track that Willis has taken, decide to pursue only some charges or dismiss the case altogether.
The Trump administration has added Colombia to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in nearly three decades. The move reflects a decade-long boom in cocaine production in Colombia. Trump said Monday that the military had separately targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing three aboard the vessel.
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump’s actions are “a dangerous assault on our Constitution” that could plunge the United States into another needless war.”
“No president can secretly wage war or carry out unjustified killings – that is authoritarianism, not democracy,” Reed said in a statement. “These reckless, unauthorized operations not only put American lives at risk, they threaten to ignite a war with Venezuela that would drag our nation into a conflict we did not choose. The American people deserve to know what is being done in their name and why,” he said.
After the latest round of trade talks between the world’s top two economies concluded in Madrid, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at a news conference that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would speak Friday to possibly finalize the deal. He said the objective of the deal would be to switch to U.S. ownership.
Qatar said Tuesday its ruling emir spoke to the U.S. secretary of state about defense cooperation and the “consequences of the Israeli attack on Doha.”
Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, gave the readout of the talks between Rubio and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
The two men also spoke about mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, he added, while harshly criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the attack last week on Doha that killed six people.
“If Prime Minister Netanyahu wants peace, he knew the road to peace a long time ago. He just decided not to go through it, and he decided to mediate in bad fate,” al-Ansari said. “And therefore, the questions about the fate of their mediation should be asked of he who is bombing the mediators and those who he is talking with on the negotiating table.”
The president said Monday that he would favor labeling antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.
“I would do that, 100 percent,” Trump said during a question-and-answer session with reporters in the Oval Office. He added: “Antifa is terrible.”
Antifa, short for “anti-fascists,” is an umbrella term for far-left militant groups.
Trump’s previous FBI director, Christopher Wray, said in testimony in 2020 that antifa is an ideology, not an organization, lacking the hierarchical structure that would usually allow it to be designated as a terror group by the federal government.
