The annual reckoning

FBI Director Kash Patel sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday for the bureau's yearly oversight hearing, his first since a year of firings, lawsuits and open questions about his conduct.

Grassley opens with numbers

Chairman Chuck Grassley gaveled in just after 9 a.m. and framed the day around data, praising Patel for managing the bureau while "repairing the damage done by your predecessors."

“They're going to criticize you for dreamed up failures. But the numbers on crime show that you've gotten the job done.”

The Republican scorecard

Grassley cited committee data showing criminal arrests up 80% over 18 months, violent crime arrests up 90%, and gang and criminal enterprise arrests up 30%.

Children and predators

He also pointed to more than 11,000 children located or identified as crime victims in 18 months, plus over 5,000 arrests of child predators and human traffickers.

“These data points show solid work by the men and women of the FBI under your leadership.”

A note on whistleblowers

Even while defending Patel, Grassley slipped in a pointed ask: build a bureau where legitimate whistleblowers get rewarded rather than punished.

Durbin goes straight at him

Ranking member Dick Durbin used his opening statement to call Patel the "least qualified and most partisan FBI director in our nation's history."

“least qualified and most partisan FBI director in our nation's history”

The grand conspiracy

Durbin accused Patel of being the central figure behind a Justice Department investigation into Obama and Biden-era officials, built on claims Trump has made without evidence.

“diverting FBI resources to inane, debunked conspiracy theories”

Still relitigating 2020

Durbin also faulted Patel for continuing to investigate the 2020 election results in states like Georgia, a race Biden won.

Patel's case for himself

In his opening statement Patel described his tenure as "the most prolific run of crime reduction in United States history," citing arrests of violent criminals and gang members and over 3,000 kilograms of fentanyl seized.

“This FBI is making America safe.”

A 20-year low

Patel highlighted the U.S. murder rate falling to its lowest point in two decades, calling it "no easy effort" and crediting changes he made: new task force officers, a strategic information center, less bureaucracy.

“the success means that this FBI's made America safer than it's ever been”

Ten out of ten

Mid-hearing, Patel announced the capture of a man he called "a thug down in Venezuela" who had been on the run for years, the last name on the FBI's most wanted list.

“That's 10 of 10. Nobody in the FBI's history has done that.”

Durbin on the shootings

Durbin pressed Patel on why the FBI has not investigated two federal officer-involved shootings in Illinois: Marimar Martinez, shot by a border patrol agent, and Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, killed by an ICE agent.

“Director Patel, why has the FBI refused to investigate either of these shootings?”

A careful non-answer

Patel said investigations are ongoing and he could not discuss them, noting multiple federal agencies are involved and the decision ultimately rests with the Justice Department.

What the experts add

Crime has been sliding for years since the pandemic spike, and the drop shows up in cities with very different politics and policing, which makes any single cause hard to pin down.

The people who left

Over 1,100 special agents departed in 2025 alone, according to Justice Connection, amid firings of analysts who questioned the Georgia election probe, counterintelligence agents on Iran cases, and staff from the shuttered Mar-a-Lago documents case.

Lowering the bar

CBS News reported the bureau relaxed background standards for applicants who admitted to hiring sex workers, stealing from employers, or animal cruelty before turning 18. The FBI called the changes narrow.

“These are not minor technical adjustments.”

The jet, the BMWs

Grassley wrote privately in May and Durbin publicly in July seeking answers on Patel's use of an FBI jet, vehicle purchases, and whether taxpayers were reimbursed, including a Justice Department flight to Italy for the Olympic hockey final.

Suing over the story

Patel sued The Atlantic for defamation in April over a report alleging heavy drinking and absences that delayed time-sensitive decisions, calling the claims "false and obviously fabricated."