All Democrats and two Republicans voted against Patel’s confirmation, a testament to the highly partisan nature of his nomination. He is expected to be sworn in quickly after the confirmation vote, followed by a public-facing Oval Office ceremony in the coming day, his spokeswoman said.

Patel is a former public defender and Justice Department lawyer who has transformed in recent years into a controversial MAGA firebrand, vowing to curb what he says has been politically motivated activity at the bureau. Trump highlighted that point after terminating former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s 10-year term early and subsequently nominating Patel.

“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice, and protecting the American people,” Trump said.

Top issues for Trump and Republicans in recent years have included the FBI submitting high-profile but faulty foreign intelligence surveillance court applications in the Trump-Russia investigation, monitoring school board meetings for violent behavior, taking a heavy-handed approach to anti-abortion activists and Jan. 6 rioters, and executing a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

The FBI has also suspended security clearances of embattled employees for many months or years at a time while senior officials investigate them, a policy that an inspector general report found deprived the employees of due process. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who has advocated for whistleblowers, has indicated this is one of the most compelling reasons for him to support Patel.

“Democrats are afraid he’ll retaliate against whistleblowers, like the Biden administration did against FBI and IRS agents who blew the whistle,” Grassley said on the Senate floor.

Patel first caught Trump’s attention in 2018 while serving as lead counsel in the House Intelligence Committee’s inquiry into the FBI’s investigation of alleged Trump-Russia collusion.

Patel’s good graces with Trump were rewarding and lucrative. He earned top national security posts in the president’s first administration and went on to provide consulting services to Trump’s 2020 campaign, raking in what the Associated Press found was more than half a million dollars. His financial disclosures revealed he also made hundreds of thousands of dollars on other Trump-aligned business endeavors, including by writing a children’s book called The Plot Against the King.

Patel has also become a brash self-promoter in recent years, appearing in more than 1,000 mostly right-wing media appearances. He has, at times, spread the unproven claim that the FBI organized the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and elevated Jan. 6 rioters who assaulted police officers. He has also engaged with provocative figures, such as Laura Loomer and Stew Peters. He later attributed those interactions to a desire to “disavow them of their false impressions.”

Despite her initial optimism about Patel, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) announced Thursday she would not support him, citing a string of recent firings at the DOJ and FBI that “raise the specter” of forthcoming politicized personnel action.

“In this context, there is a compelling need for an FBI Director who is decidedly apolitical,” Collins said. “While Mr. Patel has had 16 years of dedicated public service, his time over the past four years has been characterized by high profile and aggressive political activity.”

Democrats have remained intensely opposed to Patel leading the FBI. Those on the Senate Judiciary Committee appeared outside the bureau’s headquarters Thursday to protest his confirmation.

“When left to his own devices, Kash Patel has proven himself to be a wildly vindictive partisan,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said.

Whitehouse, speaking in front of a “Block Kash Patel” sign, called the incoming FBI director a “sycophantic suck-up” to Trump.

Patel called last year for shuttering the FBI headquarters and turning the decades-old J. Edgar Hoover Building into a museum of the “deep state.” Confronted during his confirmation hearing about the prospect of closing the headquarters, where thousands of bureau employees work, Patel walked back the idea.

Mike Clark, the president of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, told the Washington Examiner that his organization wants Patel to be successful in his role, “because if he’s successful, the FBI is successful.”

FOUR TAKEAWAYS FROM KASH PATEL’S SENATE HEARING

Clark said that he believes concern has lingered across the FBI about possible firings after DOJ leadership demanded lists of employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases and probationary employees, which are employees who have worked at the FBI for less than two years. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said she is reviewing Jan. 6 cases for evidence of overzealous investigative activity, and the list is intended to help with that review.

“Everyone’s kind of holding their breath, hoping that none of that stuff actually happens,” Clark said, noting that mass firings would “significantly impact” daily operations.