FBI chief Kash Patel spars with top Democrat over allegations of excessive drinking on the job – US politics live

While answering questions from Patty Murray, the Democratic vice-chair of the Senate appropriations committee, Kash Patel said that no FBI resources have been used to investigate the negative press about him or his handling of the agency.

Murray went on to question Pate’s leadership, and repeated the allegations against his behavior while on the job.

“I am deeply concerned about the reports that your leadership has not been serious,” she said. “Your job is to be reachable … if you want to pass out liquor or pop bottles in a locker room, stick to podcasting. Leave Law and Order to people who really do care about justice and appearances.”

Earlier this year, Patel faced criticism after a ProPublica reporter shared a video the FBI director chugging a bottle and spraying beer in a locker room with the men’s USA hockey team in Milan, following their gold medal victory against Canada at the Winter Olympics.

When Van Hollen asked Patel whether he’s subjected team members to polygraph tests to determine leaks to the press, the FBI director denied personally ordering any tests.

“There’s an internal inspection review process for any and all leaks,” Patel added. “Those processes are followed by career intelligence and agents on the ground.”

This comes after the FBI said last year that it begun the process of using polygraph tests to aid investigations aimed at identifying the source of leaks emanating from within the law enforcement agency.

During a heated exchange with Senator Chris Van Hollen, Kash Patel fired back at the top Democrat’s line of questioning about allegations of the FBI director’s excessive drinking and unexplained absences on the job.

“It’s a total farce. I don’t even know where you get this stuff,” Patel told Van Hollen, who explained that he was repeating claims reported by the Atlantic.

“The only person that was slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gang banging rapist was you,” Patel shouted at Van Hollen, referring to the Democratic senator’s visitor to see Kilmar Ábrego García at the Cecot mega-prison after he was wrongly deported to El Salvador.

“I will not be tarnished by baseless allegations,” the FBI director continued. When Van Hollen asked if Patel would be willing to take a test to determine whether he has a drinking problem, the FBI director snapped that he would if the senator takes it alongside him.

Van Hollen also scolded Patel for carrying out Donald Trump’s ongoing retribution campaign against his political enemies. “You’re asking for more resources at a time that you’re misspending valuable resources on political revenge instead of focusing on defending our national security,” the senator said.

In his opening remarks, ranking member of the Senate appropriations subcommittee Chris Van Hollen expressed severe concern about Patel’s reported conduct as FBI director, as outlined by the Atlantic.

“What we are learning about what’s happening at the FBI is anything but normal,” the Maryland Democrat said of the allegations that Patel has denied. “When your private actions make it impossible for you to perform your public duties, we have a big problem … these reports about your conduct, including reports you’re being so drunk and hungover that your staff had to force entry into your home are extremely alarming, if true, they demonstrate a gross dereliction of your duty and a betrayal of public trust.”

A reminder that Patel filed a $250m defamation lawsuit against the Atlantic and the author of a story the magazine which includes claims of the FBI director’s “excessive drinking” as well as “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences” while leading the agency.

FBI director Kash Patel is set to testify before a Senate appropriations subcommittee about the 2027 budget for his agency. This comes as Patel battles reports about his frequent absences and alleged heavy drinking while on the job.

We’ll bring you the latest lines as things get under way.

Marty Makary resigned from his position as commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday, concluding a 13-month tenure at the regulatory agency that frequently drew the ire of the White House, Congress, industry and the public, according to US media reports.

Kyle Diamantas, who previously worked as the top food official at the agency setting the strategic direction and operations for food policy in the US, has been reported as Makary’s acting replacement, per Politico, who first reported the resignation and Makary’s replacement. Reuters and NBC News also reported on Makary’s resignation.

Donald Trump signed off on a plan to fire Makary earlier this month, after the president scolded the FDA chief for not approving fruit-flavored vapes, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“He seems fine,” Trump responded when asked about Makary on Friday. When pressed if he would fire Makary, Trump said, “I’ve been reading about it, but I know nothing about it.”

Makary initially overrode agency scientists to halt the approval of the first fruit vapes on the market before the FDA announced the approval would move forward last week.

A Democratic “field hearing” into Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes has just wrapped up in Palm Beach, Florida, after three lively hours of testimony, including from several of his victims.

“Having your stories and your answers on the record is really important to our investigation. I want to thank you for your courage,” California congressman Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House oversight committee, said in his closing remarks.

During the hearing, Democrats attacked the Republican committee majority for refusing to hold formal hearings into a scandal that has dogged Donald Trump’s second term of office.

Survivors spoke of how they were recruited as teenagers from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to provide sexual services for Epstein’s clients at his nearby estate, and elsewhere. Some told of being retraumatized after they were “outed” by the justice department’s failure to redact their names from the so-called Epstein files.

Meanwhile, Garcia unveiled a new report from democratic investigators alleging a “sweetheart deal” with Florida prosecutors in 2008 allowed Epstein to build and profit from a substantial international sex trafficking ring.

The Senate earlier confirmed Kevin Warsh to a 14-year term as Federal Reserve governor, marking an important step toward Trump’s nominee succeeding Jerome Powell as the US central bank’s next chair.

The upper chamber is now expected to immediately move forward with the confirmation process for Warsh’s concurrent four-year term as Fed chair, and could approve him for the leadership post as soon as tomorrow. Powell’s tenure as chair ends on Friday.

Warsh’s nomination was advanced in a 51-45 vote, with senator John Fetterman being the only Democrat to cross the aisle and vote with the Republican majority.

As defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s hearing before the Senate appropriations subcommittee on defence goes on, here’s a quick recap of the main lines from his appearance before the House panel on defense spending earlier:

• Jules Hurst III, chief financial official for the Pentagon, said the cost of the Iran war has risen to “closer” to $29bn because of the “repair and replacement of equipment” and “general operational costs”. Previously, the Pentagon said the war hadcost about $25bn for roughly two months of spending when Hegseth testified two weeks ago.

• Hegseth hinted that the US could re-escalate the war when asked whether the defence department had any plans to withdraw US troops from the Middle East and protect military assets in the region.

• “I would say we have a plan for all of that. We have a plan to escalate if necessary. We have a plan to, retrograde, if necessary. We have a plan to shift assets,” the defence secretary said, declining to give specific details on the next steps in Iran.

• Hegseth said “it’s evident” the ceasefire with Iran remains in effect. “Ceasefire means the fire is ceasing and we know that has occurred while negotiations occur,” he told the hearing.

The Democratic National Committee has said that Jen Kiggans, the congresswoman from Virginia who agreed with a conservative talkshow host’s offensive comments on air, is “one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the House”.

“We are going to defeat her in November,” the DNC said in a statement.

This comes after Kiggans said “that’s right, ditto” when Rich Herrera said that House minority speaker Hakeem Jeffries should “get your cotton-picking hands off of Virginia”.

Sky Roberts, brother of Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent victims, was tearful as he told a Palm Beach hearing of his sister’s courage in exposing the late sex offender’s crimes before she took her life last year.

“She was only 16 years old, a child who had just finished 10th grade, when she began being trafficked,” Roberts said at the field hearing into Epstein’s crimes, hosted by House oversight Democrats.

“Before her passing, Virginia gave sworn testimony exposing this for what it truly was, a global sex trafficking operation, enabled, protected and funded by powerful people,” he said.

“Many survivors stay silent because many of these individuals still hold power, wealth and influence in our society. No survivor should have to risk their own safety just to be believed. But Virginia, she did it anyway. She stood up when others were afraid, told the truth under oath, and faced people she knew were powerful.”

A succession of Epstein’s survivors testified how they were groomed and recruited into Epstein’s circle, and how they were then encouraged to recruit friends of their own.

“I had two recruiters. One was a late teen, and the other was only 15 years old, just trying to escape her own abuse,” Dani Bensky told the hearing.

Bensky said she was one of hundreds of Epstein’s victims whose personal information was “outed” by the justice department’s failure to properly redact documents known as the Epstein files.

Another survivor, Jena-Lisa Jones, urged Congress to pass laws providing support and advice for young girls about how to recognize and report sexual abuse.

“When I was a teenager, I did not have the language to understand what was happening to me. I did not know who to tell. I did not know where to go. Many of us didn’t,” she said.

“We were young and we were manipulated. We were left without the tools or the support we needed. That is something Congress can change.”

The justice department’s handling of the Epstein files was a recurring theme of the testimony.

California Democratic congressman Robert Garcia said the Trump administration continued to “break the law” by withholding what he said was half of the documents required by the Epstein Transparency Act.

And a survivor identified only as Roza said she was retraumatized by finding her name unredacted hundreds of times in the documents the DoJ had released.

“My name was exposed to the world. Now reporters from across the globe contact me. I cannot live without looking over my shoulder. I can only imagine the long term impact this ‘mistake’ will have on my life,” she said.

Donald Trump has nominated Kari Lake, a longtime ally and former TV anchor who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor, to serve as the next US ambassador to Jamaica.

If confirmed by the Senate, it would end Lake’s tenure as the key official responsible for Voice of America (VOA), the global media organization created in 1942.

In 2024, the US president appointed Lake to lead the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, following her unsuccessful Senate and gubernatorial campaigns in Arizona, and under the direction of a presidential executive order she moved to fire hundreds of VOA employees, as well as to cut funding for other newsgroups.

But staffers challenged those actions, and in March a federal judge ruled that Lake had been unlawfully serving as head of USAGM because she had not been confirmed by the Senate, and voided her actions at the agency, including the mass layoffs.

After the White House announcement on Monday, Lake thanked Trump in a post on social media, and said: “Jamaica is a country I know very well, full of incredible people, and if confirmed by the Senate, I look forward to strengthening the partnership between our nations, advancing America’s interests abroad, and building on the deep friendship shared by the American and Jamaican people.”

House Democrats on Tuesday released a new report alleging that a “sweetheart deal” with Florida prosecutors allowed the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein to build a substantial and lucrative international sex trafficking ring.

Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House oversight committee, kicked off a field hearing in Palm Beach – where Epstein procured young girls to provide sexual services to a range of wealthy clients – by presenting the report called “The Price of Non-Prosecution – the evolution of Epstein’s trafficking network from Palm Beach to Paris and beyond”.

It alleges that Epstein and his associates gamed the US immigration system to obtain visas to traffic women into the country from overseas.

The day-long hearing will hear from several survivors of Epstein’s abuse, some of whom were as young as 14 for Epstein’s parties in Palm Beach and elsewhere.

Garcia’s opening remarks focused in part on the deal Epstein was able to strike in 2008 with federal prosecutors in Miami that allowed him to dodge more serious charges and serve only 13 months in prison for a solicitation of prostitution conviction.

“[Our] report uses evidence obtained by our investigation, including and most importantly bank records, that show how [prosecutor] Alex Acosta’s sweetheart deal let Epstein build a global network using enablers to bring in women who he could then exploit and abuse,” Garcia said.

“This report is just the beginning of numerous reports and information that we intend to put out over the course of the months ahead.

“This hearing is about making one thing clear, and that is that no one is above the law. Survivors matter, and this committee will continue to demand transparency.”

Backlash continues to grow after Representative Jen Kiggans, a Republican, agreed with a conservative talkshow host’s offensive comments on air.

During Monday’s episode of “Richmond’s Morning News”, Rich Herrera said that House minority speaker Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black American to lead a party in Congress, should “get your cotton-picking hands off of Virginia”.

In response, Kiggans said: “That’s right, ditto”.

Following a deluge of calls to resign from national and state Democrats, the lawmaker, who represents Virginia’s second district, distanced herself from Herrera’s comments. “The radio host should not have used that language and I do not – and did not – condone it. It was obvious to anyone listening that I was agreeing Hakeem Jeffries should stay out of Virginia,” Kiggans later said in a statement.

Christie Stephenson, a spokesperson for Hakeem Jeffries, said that Kiggans had her chance “to disavow the vile, racist and dehumanizing comments” but instead “she doubled down”.

“It was a stunning failure of judgment and leadership for a so-called moderate Member of Congress representing a large, vibrant African American community in Virginia,” Stephenson added.

Virginia Democrats on Monday asked the US supreme court to revive the congressional map designed to boost their party’s chances in November’s midterm elections. This comes after the state supreme court last week rejected the voter-approved measure to amend the state’s constitution and redraw the map.

While his defense secretary testified on Capitol Hill, Donald Trump posted a stream of AI generated images on Truth Social.

The latest showed a mock-up of a fighter jet striking Iranian warships with the caption “BYE BYE, ‘Fast Boats’” while another fake image shows a US naval ship shooting down an Iranian drone and reads “Lasers: Bing, Bing GONE!!!”

Earlier the president shared more doctored pictures of his Democratic foes. One AI image showed Trump’s long-time adversary, Illinois governor JB Pritzker shovelling fast food into his mouth with a caption “JB is too busy to keep Chicago safe”. Another fake picture showed Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi steeping in a sewage filled reflecting pool in Washington DC – a likely push back against the criticism of the president’s multi million-dollar renovation of the landmark. “Dumacrats Love Sewage” the caption reads.