President Trump’s FBI director nominee Kash Patel pledged in his confirmation to end the ‘targeting’ of Americans by the government specifically as it relates to citizens who were in the crosshairs of the Biden administration for religious reasons.
‘Is it appropriate for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to attempt to recruit spies or informants into religious institutions in this country, particularly Catholic parishes?’ GOP Sen. Josh Hawley asked Patel in his confirmation hearing on Thursday.
Patel responded, ‘I don’t believe so, senator.’
‘Mr. Patel, are you familiar with the recent actions of the FBI in this regard, including this memo that I have right here making a list of Catholic churches and parishes that they regard as potentially suspect and directing the potential recruitment of informants and other spies, let’s be honest, into those parishes,’ Hawley asked.
Patel told Hawley is familiar with the memo leading the Missouri Republican into his next question.
‘Mr. Patel, would you commit to me that you will, if you are confirmed, that you will finally and officially withdraw this memo and make it clear that this is not only unacceptable, but that it is an absolute violation of the First Amendment, that every American voice under the Constitution of the United States,’ Hawley asked.
‘If I’m confirmed, Senator, yes,’ Patel said back.
Will you also commit to me that you will conduct an investigation and find out who wrote this memo, who spread this memo?’ Hawley asked. ‘The field offices involved in this memo, because I can tell you, we’ve had your predecessor sit right where you’re sitting. And he has repeatedly, repeatedly lied, there’s no other word for it, lied to this committee. He told us initially that it didn’t happen, that the FBI didn’t make any list of churches. That’s not true. We have it. A whistleblower brought forward the list for us.’
‘He said then that only one field office had worked on, it turns out we know from another whistleblower, multiple field offices worked on it, worked on it. He said that it was never posted on the internal system. It turns out it was. We believe it’s still in effect. Will you find out who was involved in this gross abuse of Americans First Amendment rights? And will you discipline them? And if you possibly can, will you fire them? Mr. Patel, consistent with Department policy and law?‘
Patel told Hawley that the senator has his ‘commitment’ to ‘investigate any matters such as this’ that ‘are important to Congress.’
‘I will fully utilize, if confirmed, the investigative powers of the FBI to give you the information you require, and also to hold those accountable who violated the sacred trust placed in them at the FBI,’ Patel told Hawley.
Hawley responded, ‘I’m glad to use the word sacred trust, because that’s exactly what it is. The FBI’s the most powerful law enforcement body in this nation, arguably the most powerful law enforcement body, at least in a free nation in the world and to have this body corrupted politically such that it is targeting people of faith in this country and then lying about it to this committee and the American people is unimaginable.’
‘I’ll be honest with you, I never thought this would happen in the United States of America, I just didn’t. If you had told me five years ago we’d be reading memos like this, I would have said, no way, no way. That’s bad fiction. In fact, it’s a horrible reality. The department needs to be cleaned up.’
The exchanges comes on the heels of Trump’s recent announcement that he would pardon pro-life activists convicted under the FACE Act during President Joe Biden’s administration.
The pardons, first reported by The Daily Wire, would apply to activists convicted of protesting near abortion clinics during various demonstrations. The details and scope of the pardons have yet to be revealed.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has also introduced legislation that would dismantle the FACE Act. Many lawmakers have argued that Democratic administrations have weaponized it against pro-life groups and Christians.
Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report