Things got fury-filled and heated as FBI Director Kash Patel clashed and sparred with Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) during a Tuesday, September 16, Senate hearing regarding oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Patel hammered Schiff as a “buffoon” and “fraud” as the two fought about the FBI and Epstein.
As background, while few Democrats cared about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal while President Joe Biden was in office, it has turned into an explosive issue for the Trump Administration, with Director Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi infuriating many in even the MAGA base by seemingly stonewalling requests for public releases of information about the Epstein scandal.
That frustration led into the exchange between Sen. Schiff and Director Patel, with Schiff pressing him on why Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was transferred to a minimum security federal prison after she met with U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for an interview.
In response to Sen. Schiff using that transfer as a bludgeon with which to attack him, Director Patel first noted that the Bureau of Prisons signed off on the move, and it wasn’t a big deal. Schiff wasn’t having it, and kept attacking Patel, using it to insist that the FBI was trying to hide or influence something. He snapped, “You want the American people to believe that? Do you think they’re stupid?”
At that point, Patel fired back at the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat, snapping that as the Director of the FBI he is not regularly sorting through the prison accommodations of various inmates. He said, “No, I think the American people believe the truth. That I’m not in the weeds on the everyday movements of inmates.”
Continuing, the obviously angry FBI Director snapped that Schiff was a proven liar who had used his position to illegally weaponize intelligence, such as with the Russia Hoax in which he was an integral part, saying, “What I am doing is protecting this country, providing historic reform, and combating the weaponization of intelligence by the likes of you and we have callously proven you to be a liar in Russiagate, in January 6.”
Further, he hurled a string of stinging personal insults at the senator from California, calling him everything from an utter disgrace to the theoretically august legislative body to a fraud. He said, “You are the biggest fraud to ever the United States Senate. You are a disgrace to this institution and an utter coward.”
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Senator Schiff, evidently somewhat put off by the string of insults hurled his way, snapped back, simply and lamely, “I’m not surprised.” Patel, however, wasn’t done with him. He thundered, “I’m not surprised. You continue to lie from your perch and put on a show so you can go raise money for your charade. You are a political buffoon at best.” Watch them here:
For reference, the move over which Sen. Schiff pretended to be so concerned was something of a non-issue. After the meeting with Blanche, Ghislaine Maxwell was simply moved from her former, low-security, federal prisone facility in Tallahassee, Florida, to a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video