Senate advances nomination of Trump FBI pick Kash Patel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted to advance the nomination of Kash Patel to be the director of the FBI, putting a staunch ally of President Donald Trump and a critic of the bureau on track to run the most prominent U.S. law enforcement agency.

The Senate voted 48-45 along party lines on a procedural measure setting the stage for a final confirmation vote on one of Trump’s most controversial nominees later this week.

Patel, a former intelligence and Defense Department official in Trump’s first term, has called for a radical reshaping of the FBI, pledging to expand its role on illegal immigration and violent crime, core Trump priorities.

Patel has been among the most vocal critics of FBI investigations into Trump on issues ranging from Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Florida club and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Democrats have called Patel unfit to lead the FBI, pointing to his embrace of false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election and FBI agents fomenting the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. But Patel has attracted broad support from Republicans, who have touted him as a reformer.

A Senate panel voted 12-10 along party lines last week to send his nomination to the full Senate.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Shumaker)

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