The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee has sent a letter to the Justice Department Inspector General accusing Kash Patel, President Trump's pick for FBI director, of secretly orchestrating the firings of FBI officials, a day after telling the committee under oath that he was not aware of any plan to do so.
“If these allegations are true, Mr. Patel may have perjured himself before the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote.
Durbin said he has spoken to whistleblowers who told him that Patel has been relaying instructions to White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, who then relayed Patel's instructions to acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.
“I have received highly credible information from multiple sources that Kash Patel has been personally directing the ongoing purge of career civil servants at the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Durbin wrote in the letter. “Although Mr. Patel is President Trump’s nominee to be FBI Director, he is still a private citizen with no role in government.”
Durbin, whose letter was first reported by The New York Times, described a meeting the day before Patel's confirmation hearing where Bove said Patel and Miller were pushing for firings at the FBI, as had already occurred at the Department of Justice.
"Contemporaneous notes from that morning meeting read: 'KP wants movement at FBI, reciprocal actions for DOJ,'” Durbin wrote, an apparent reference to Patel's initials.
In a social media post, Erika Knight, a spokesperson for Patel, did not directly address Durbin's letter but decried what she described as a "false narrative."
“Kash Patel is a highly qualified national security expert who has been fully transparent with the American people throughout this process and has demonstrated the integrity and leadership needed for this role,” she wrote. “The Senate should confirm him without delay.”
Durbin noted that, during Patel's confirmation hearing on Jan. 30, Sen. Corey Booker, D-N.J., asked Patel if he was "aware of any plans or discussions to punish in any way, including termination, FBI agents or personnel associated with Trump investigations? Yes or no.”
Patel answered that he was “not aware of that.” Patel then added, “I don’t know what’s going on right now over there, but I’m committed to you, senator, and your colleagues that I will honor the internal review process of the FBI.”
Patel also stated in the hearing, “All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution.”
The following day, acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll sent a memo to the entire FBI workforce saying that he had been ordered to remove eight senior FBI executives by Bove, who previously worked as Trump's defense lawyer. Driscoll also said he was told to turn over the names of every FBI employee involved in investigating Jan. 6 rioters, a number believed to be in the thousands.
Driscoll refused a Justice Department order that he assist in the firing of agents involved in Jan. 6 riot cases, pushing back so forcefully that some FBI officials feared he would be dismissed, multiple current and former FBI officials previously told NBC News.
Continued fears of mass firings
The Trump administration has also asked the FBI's field offices and headquarters to justify the continued employment of 3,600 bureau employees — roughly 10% of the FBI’s workforce — who joined the bureau recently and as a result are on probationary status.
The FBI Agents Association, a group that represents agents but is not a union, said that special agents on probation have already undergone extensive training at the FBI Academy in Quantico. They say the agents are already working on active investigations and mass dismissals could disrupt them.
In an interview with NBC News Tuesday, Natalie Bara, the president of the FBI Agents Association, said that it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to train an agent, from their initial application to their graduation from Quantico.
Bara said the bureau needs to add 800 to 1,000 special agents each year to replace retiring special agents, so mass firings would impact the bureau for years.
“It doesn’t make any sense to turn around and fire or dismiss agents who have already been through this process," Bara said.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Patel's nomination on Thursday. It's unclear whether Durbin's perjury claim will have an impact on Republican senators, who have so far uniformly defended Patel.
If his nomination is approved by the committee, the full Senate will vote on whether to confirm Patel to a 10-year-term as FBI director.
Here are five things to know about former federal prosecutor Kash Patel.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:
