Civil rights groups warn of FBI’s past abuses of Black leaders in opposing Trump nominee Kash Patel
In a letter, advocates urge Senate to oppose Patel's nomination for FBI director, citing his past "incendiary comments" and threats to go after political enemies.
As President Donald Trump‘s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, gets grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday for his confirmation hearing, civil rights groups are sounding the alarm about his qualifications and warning of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s past abuses against Black leaders and other citizens.
In a letter addressed to Committee Chairman Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ranking Member Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., more than fifty civil rights and advocacy groups urged the committee to oppose Patel’s nomination due to his inexperience to lead the nation’s top law enforcement agency, as well as past “incendiary comments.”
The coalition of groups, which includes the NAACP, National Urban League, Legal Defense Fund and National Black Justice Coalition, notes that Patel, a former Defense Department official in the first Trump administration and former Justice Department prosecutor, is “unfit” for office due to several actions, including an attempt to legitimize Trump’s lie that his 2020 presidential loss was a result of voter fraud, which resulted in the deadly and violent Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol; and targeting a so-called “enemies list” (including journalists) on behalf of Trump to exact revenge for his election loss to former President Joe Biden and criminal prosecutions.
But what may be most glaring about the letter from civil rights organizations is the harkening back to the FBI’s dark past of illegal surveillance of civil rights movements and leaders. “The threat posed by Mr. Patel is not merely hypothetical — it is grounded in historical reality,” the groups warn.
The coalition points to the years 1956-1971, when the FBI conducted its now infamous COINTELPRO surveillance program, which was “covert and illegal” in its targeting of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights figures.
“This program, intended to surveil, infiltrate, and sabotage civil rights movements, is now widely regarded as one of the agency’s most significant
overreaches,” the letter notes.
Though there have been reforms made to improve the integrity of the FBI, including the establishment of House and Senate intelligence committees and term limits for FBI directors, the groups point out that “the FBI continues to monitor religious communities and civil rights movements,” including the use of “ethnic mapping,” which is the collection of racial and ethnic information in certain communities. In 2020, the FBI used tactics to surveil Black Lives Matter protesters and “tracked protest activity after the murder of George Floyd,” the letter said.
Despite the stain of their abuse against Black leaders and activists, the FBI has historically played a critical role in civil rights case, including the investigations of the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963, and the Freedom Summer murders of civil rights workers in 1964.
“Still, the FBI has played an important role in civil rights cases that future FBI directors must honor and continue. It was the FBI that responded to the murder of Emmett Till in 1955, with the case going to trial fewer than four weeks later. It was the FBI that launched immediate investigations into the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham in 1963 and the Freedom Summer murders of civil rights workers in 1964.
“It was the FBI, after all-white juries did not reach a verdict for the murder of Medgar Evers, that helped ensure justice was served in the 1990s when the white supremacist who killed him was finally convicted and sentenced to life in prison,” said civil rights organizations.
The letter concludes, “Given this complicated history and the FBI’s vast authority, the bureau’s leadership must be entrusted to someone who will uphold the U.S. Constitution, respect the rule of law, and commit to safeguarding the rights and freedoms of the American people. Given his record, Mr. Patel is unfit to serve as the next FBI director.”
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