House Oversight and Government Reform Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) plans to meet next week with Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-confirmed pick to run the FBI, to discuss how he can be an ally in the new administration’s efforts to root out the so-called Deep State.
“I want [Patel] to know that our committee will assist in any way possible to help him disrupt the ‘Deep State,’” Comer said in an interview on Thursday, referring to the conspiracy of illicit power-players running the government.
Patel, who if confirmed would replace Christopher Wray as head of the FBI, has come under scrutiny for suggesting he intends to go after Trump’s political adversaries. But Trump’s allies, including Comer, have argued that Wray failed to address bias at the agency that they claim has become overly politicized.
While his confirmation hearing date has not yet been set, Patel has promised if installed in the posting to rebrand the FBI headquarters as a so-called “museum of the deep state” and enumerated members of the “Deep State” in his book “Government Gangsters.”
Comer said his committee could help in Patel’s effort, specifically suggesting the Oversight Committee could relay to Patel’s team the names of bureaucrats “that kept coming up in our depositions and interviews of people that were obstructing and covering up.”
He was alluding to the officials interviewed in the previous congress during the House GOP’s ultimately unsuccessful impeachment inquiry into the outgoing president, Joe Biden, of which Comer was a leader.
That probe, which never culminated in a formal impeachment vote, was based on allegations that Biden engaged in “impeachable conduct” for using his position to enrich those close to him. Comer and his colleagues ultimately recommended that the Justice Department prosecute the president’s son Hunter Biden and brother James Biden for lying to Congress.
In an interview, Comer also suggested there was more work to be done in scrutinizing whether officials sought to obstruct his committee’s prior work surrounding the impeachment inquiry.
“[Patel] and I are fixing to meet because with respect to him, they need to hold some people accountable for a cover up,” Comer asserted. “It’s a big deal to know that the president of the United States is on the take, and yet you do nothing — and I would go further, obstructed our investigation and coordinated with the media to write things that just weren’t true.”
The expected meeting with Patel, a former Trump National Security Council staffer, is an early sign that the House GOP will play a key role in the Trump administration’s efforts to transform the Department of Justice and potentially pursue action against their political opponents.
Comer’s committee has already submitted a request that Biden’s former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley, who is also a candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee, appear before his committee this Congress.
The Oversight Committee chair is also not the only panel leader looking to keep the Biden administration on the front burner despite the upcoming transfer of power. House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said in an interview this week he might, in the months ahead, seek to recall the special counsel in the Hunter Biden criminal probe to get more information about the scope of the allegations against him.
