Kash Patel, another of Trump’s more controversial nominees, has been confirmed as director of the FBI.

From Fox News. The Senate on Thursday voted 51-49 to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director.

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Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted “yes” on the conservative firebrand’s confirmation, even while moderates Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted “no.”

A vote to invoke cloture and begin two hours of debate on the nominee passed 51 to 47 earlier Thursday.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted earlier this month, 12 to 10, to advance Patel to the full floor for a vote.

Still, Patel faced a rockier path to confirmation, even in the Republican-majority chamber, after Democrats on the panel used their political weight to delay Patel’s confirmation vote earlier this month. …

Patel, a vociferous opponent of the investigations into President Donald Trump and one who served at the forefront of Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims, vowed during his confirmation hearing last month that he would not engage in political retribution against agents who worked on the classified documents case against Trump and other politically sensitive matters. …

“There will be no politicization at the FBI,” Patel told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing. “There will be no retributive action.”

But making good on that promise could prove to be complicated.

Trump told reporters this month that he intends to fire “some” of the FBI personnel involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, characterizing the agents’ actions as “corrupt,” even as he stopped short of providing any additional details as to how he reached that conclusion. …

And in another message meant to assuage senators, Patel said he didn’t find it feasible to require a warrant for intelligence agencies to surveil U.S. citizens suspected to be involved in national security matters, referring to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). …

“Get a warrant” had become a rallying cry of right-wing conservatives worried about the privacy of U.S. citizens, and almost derailed the reauthorization of the surveillance program entirely. Patel said the program has been misused, but he does not support making investigators go to court and plea their case before being able to wiretap any U.S. citizen.

Patel held a number of national security roles during Trump’s first administration — chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence and National Security Council official. …

In public comments, Patel has suggested he would refocus the FBI on law enforcement and away from involvement in any prosecutorial decisions. …

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(Excerpt from Fox News. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Kash Patel, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=127058489)