The Latest: Kash Patel confronts Senate questions over probe into Charlie Kirk’s killing

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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.”

The Latest:

Durbin asked Patel about statements from Dan Bongino before he became deputy director of the FBI that the bombs found at the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee on Jan. 6, 2021, were an “inside job.”

The FBI director declined to comment on Bongino’s comments, but said he found Durbin’s criticism of Bongino “disgusting.”

“So you have no evidence?” asked Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“I got a lot of evidence, and I’ll give it to you when I can,” Patel said.

The person who placed the bombs just before the attack on the U.S. Capitol that day has never been identified.

During one combative exchange, Patel was pressed by the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee over an unsigned memo released by the Justice Department in July that said there was no evidence of a Jeffrey Epstein “client list.”

Patel responded with a dig at former President Joe Biden, telling Durbin: “Would you have preferred I used autopen?”

Republicans have accused the Democratic president of signing pardons in this final days in the White House with an autopen instead of by his own hand.

The Senate hearing is quickly becoming tense, with the FBI director repeatedly avoiding answering questions from Sen. Durbin on how the bureau has administered polygraph tests to staff.

Patel told Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, that he wouldn’t discuss the specifics of how polygraph tests are administered or what questions come up.

Durbin responded, “You have to have a decent memory when you come before a committee.”

The Associated Press has previously reported that agents and senior executives alike have been subjected to polygraph exams aimed at ferreting out disclosures of information related to Patel.

Patel brought up the Epstein files in his opening statement, seeking to address a topic that’s brought criticism from some quarters of Trump’s conservative base who want to see more information released about the probe.

The FBI director faulted the original case against Jeffrey Epstein that ended in a plea deal years ago. He says it involved a “very limited search warrant” and asserted that the Trump administration has done more to release all “credible information” they could under the law.

Patel also said Epstein had not been a source for the FBI.

He didn’t acknowledge criticism that the FBI and Justice Department have faced in recent months over the abrupt announcement in July that they would not be releasing additional documents from their trove of evidence.

The state’s high court on Tuesday declined to hear Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ appeal of her removal from the case.

Trump reacted to the news by saying it was a “great decision” and a “rigged case to start off with.”

He also called for Willis to be jailed for attempting to prosecute him and several other individuals.

▶ Read more on the ruling in the Georgia election fraud case against Trump and others

Patel has concluded his opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee with a bit of a challenge for his critics: “I’m not going anywhere.”

The FBI director pointed to his experience as a congressional staffer and Trump administration official, saying, “If you want to criticize my 16 years of service, please bring it on.”

Senate Republicans have continued to express confidence in Patel despite criticism from some conservative commentators of how he’s led the FBI’s response to the killing of Charlie Kirk.

Democrats, meanwhile, will intensely question Patel over what they say is a highly politicized approach to the FBI.

The president reacted to news of the famed actor’s death and said he made “seven or eight great movies.”

“He had a series of years where, there was nobody better,” he said.

▶ Read the AP’s coverage of Robert Redford’s death and legacy

The Illinois Democrat says both political parties “have a responsibility to bring down the temperature” and encourage unity following Kirk’s killing.

In his opening remarks earlier in the hearing, Durbin said Democrats are not responsible for Kirk’s death, just as Republicans are not responsible for the killing of a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota earlier this year.

The country is going through a period of division and political violence, he said, but “Republicans are not Nazis, Democrats are not evil.”

Patel’s opening remarks highlighted his efforts to transform the bureau to focus on combating violent crime.

Patel said the FBI has arrested more than 23,000 violent criminals this year — an increase compared with last year. He also touted the FBI’s efforts to target drug trafficking and violent drug cartels.

Critics have raised concerns that the focus on immigration enforcement and violent crime could divert attention from the FBI’s ability to focus on matters like counterterrorism.

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.