John Cornyn ‘inclined’ to back Trump FBI pick Kash Patel after Senate meeting

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters he had a good meeting with President-elect Trump’s FBI pick, Kash Patel, on Monday and said he was “certainly inclined to support him, barring some unforeseen circumstances.”

“We still don’t know what Director Wray’s plans are, but, eventually, I assume that Mr. Patel will be confirmed as the next FBI director,” he said following the morning meeting. 

According to Cornyn, he and Patel spoke about “the importance of restoring the reputation of the FBI as a nonpartisan, law enforcement investigative agency.”

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Sen. John Cornyn and Kash Patel met on Monday in the Hart office building. (Reuters)

He noted that confidence in the FBI was eroded after former Director James Comey’s handling of the investigation into former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. 

“That was fundamentally a wrong thing for the FBI director to do that, to [announce] prosecutorial decisions that should have been made by the attorney general,” Cornyn said of Comey, who claimed “that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case” against Clinton over her misuse of her email system. 

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Kash Patel and President-elect Trump (Getty Images)

“But of course, that continued when James Comey was fired and then went on to [a] retribution tour to get a special counsel appointed against President Trump.”

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Former FBI Director James Comey (Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The senator said, “No one should have to go through what President Trump was [put] through by a partisan Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI.”

“And my goal would be to restore the nonpartisan functioning of the chief law enforcement agency in the country, the FBI and the Department of Justice. To me, that is the goal. Mr. Patel said he shares that goal,” Cornyn claimed. 

Cornyn said he is inclined to support Patel. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Patel has been at the Capitol to meet with various senators and shore up support before Trump is inaugurated and officially makes his nominations. Other high-profile choices by Trump for additional roles have similarly been meeting with lawmakers with the same intentions.