WASHINGTON — FBI Director Kash Patel sparred with Democratic lawmakers Tuesday during a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Members of Congress grilled the director over records related to the investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the recent oustings of senior bureau officials, with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. accusing the FBI director of “making a mockery” of the proceeding –– Patel’s first on Capitol Hill since his confirmation.

“We are more vulnerable to domestic and foreign attack because of your failures of leadership,” Booker said in a heated exchange with the FBI director. “I don't think you're fit to lead the bureau, but here's the thing, Mr. Patel: I think you're not going to be around long. I think this might be your last oversight hearing.”

Patel began to respond, saying, “That rant of false information does not bring this country together,” before the hearing devolved into shouting and committee Chair Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, intervened.

Patel concluded his opening remarks by saying that he was honored to serve as the FBI's ninth director.

“I'm not going anywhere,” he said. “If you want to criticize my 16 years of service, please bring it on.”

Earlier in the day before embarking on his trip to the U.K., President Donald Trump was asked if he had confidence in Patel, and the president pointed to the speed with which an arrest was made in conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing. 

“Kash, take a look at what he did with respect to this horrible person that he just captured,” Trump told reporters. “He did it in two days.”

Meanwhile, Republicans on the congressional committee largely pressed Patel about the probe into last week’s political assassination of Kirk on a college campus in Utah.

During his opening remarks, Patel launched into a synopsis of his handling of the investigation into Kirk’s assassination, crediting the release of surveillance images of a suspect with leading to an arrest.

“That is the FBI working with the public as I promised –– being transparent and providing critical information along the way in the manhunt for the suspect or suspects involved in Charlie's assassination,” he said.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas asked Patel about if the accused assassin’s roommate is transgender and if the pair may have been involved in a romantic relationship.

“Is that accurate?” Cruz inquired –– to which Patel said, “Yes, Senator.” 

And in an earlier exchange with Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., the FBI director said that information about chat messages in which the man accused of killing Kirk had allegedly confessed were “leaked.” 

Patel said that the chat on the social media app Discord included “a lot more than 20” other people and that the bureau was investigating those users.

When asked by Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana about “if others could have been involved” in Kirk’s assassination, Patel said, “Yes, sir.”

Late into the nearly five-hour hearing, one Democrat raised a social media post Patel made in the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s murder.

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., asked Patel about his X message hours after Kirk was killed, saying that “the subject” in the political assassination was in custody. Less than two hours later, the FBI director shared an update that the individual had been released and the manhunt was still underway.

“I don't quite get that, because if we have our man, that would suggest to the public that everybody can rest and relax and not then continue to provide information to local law enforcement and to you,” Welch said. “So that was a mistake.”

Patel responded, saying, “I don’t see it as a mistake. I see it as something — working with the public to identify there was a subject in custody.”

Patel told senators that the “original sin” in the Epstein investigation was how then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Alex Acosta handled the case. Acosta, who oversaw Epstein’s controversial plea deal allowing the disgraced financier to avoid a federal indictment, resigned from his role as Labor Secretary in 2019. 

The FBI director told Grassley that Epstein was not “a source” for the bureau and committed to providing all records that he was “legally permitted” to release “under the court orders.”

“Who, if anyone, did Epstein traffic these young women to besides himself?” Kennedy asked. 

In response, Patel said that there was “no credible information” in the case files showing that others were involved. 

“If there were, I would bring the case yesterday — that he trafficked to other individuals,” Patel said. “The information we have, again, is limited.”

The Louisiana lawmaker told the FBI director that “this issue is not going to go away.” 

“I think you're going to have to do more to satisfy the American people,” Kennedy said.

Further questioning later in the hearing over the transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum-security prison in Texas by Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Cali., led to a testy back-and-forth, with Patel shouting out that Schiff was a “political buffoon at best.”

The FBI director told the West Coast lawmaker that the Bureau of Prisons had been behind the decision to move Maxwell –– Epstein’s former girlfriend, who was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and conspiracy to convince minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.

Patel also contended that the “black book” of Epstein’s contacts had already been released by the administration earlier this year. 

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois — the ranking member of the committee — criticized Patel for ousting career FBI officials and asked the director about comments made by Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who said previously that bombs found at the Democratic and Republican national committees on Jan. 6, 2021, were an “inside job.”

Patel said that the investigation into the bombs was “ongoing,” and later added, “I got a lot of evidence, and I'll give it to you when I can.”

The FBI director also refuted the line of inquiry, saying that it called into question Bongino’s –– as well as his own –– integrity. 

“I find it disgusting that everyone and anyone would jettison our 31 years of combined experience, that is now at the helm of the FBI delivering historic results at historic speeds for the American people,” Patel said.

Durbin in his opening remarks called Patel “arguably the most partisan FBI director ever,” and said that he has “already inflicted untold damage on the FBI.” 

Another line of questioning that came up several times during the hearing was Patel’s reassignments of agents to assist with Trump’s mass deportation agenda, which the FBI director described as a better alignment with “where the crime was happening in the field.”

“We needed a reallocation of assets, and that's what we did,” he told Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., who also brought up the president’s plans to send federal officers to several cities.

“That's exactly what we did,” Patel said. “We did it in D.C. We're doing it in Memphis. We're going to Chicago, Miami, St. Louis, so many other cities across the country.”

Several Democrats also grilled Patel about firings of high-ranking FBI officials and agents last month. Three –– Brian Driscoll, Steve Jensen and Spencer Evans –– filed a lawsuit last week against Patel, contending they were removed as part of a “campaign of retribution.” 

The FBI director declined to provide more information about Driscoll, citing “ongoing litigation.”

Durbin asked Patel about whether he used polygraphs to conduct “loyalty tests” for personnel. 

The FBI director replied: “Polygraphs have been utilized at the FBI for decades. They will continue to be utilized in the fashion by the professionals that administer them.”

Near the end of the hearing, Schiff asked if any FBI personnel were fired or disciplined wholly or in part because of their work on cases involving the president. 

“No firings at the FBI or terminations were done for anything other than justified,” the director said.