What happened today
• On Capitol Hill: FBI Director Kash Patel was questioned by lawmakers during an at-times heated Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. He fielded questions on FBI hiring standards — including why the bureau no longer automatically disqualifies some job applicants who allegedly engaged in crimes like prostitution and bestiality.
• Heated hearing: Democratic Sen. Cory Booker and Patel had a fiery exchange over the use of FBI resources and subpoenaing journalists. The FBI director also addressed questions about violence during immigration operations and some documents in the Epstein files not being released.
• At the White House: Meanwhile, Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Trump administration could continue to pursue mail-in voting changes even after the Supreme Court blocked the president’s plans ahead of the midterm elections.
Our live coverage of FBI Director Kash Patel’s appearance at a Senate hearing as well as of Attorney General Todd Blanche’s White House briefing has concluded. Please scroll through the posts below for all of today’s coverage.
Todd Blanche just answered questions at a White House briefing. Here’s what he said
US Attorney General Todd Blanche defended Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth after Rep. Thomas Massie, a rogue Republican, pushed to impeach the secretary over the Iran war.
Attorney General Todd Blanche helmed a White House press briefing a short while ago in the Rose Garden, during which he commented on mail-in voting, artificial intelligence and more.
Here are key lines from the briefing:
- Assassination attempt details: Blanche said there is new information about the shooter responsible for the assassination attempt against President Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign in Butler, Pennsylvania, but declined to explain Trump’s earlier comments on social media — made without evidence — that the attempt was a “Democrat plot.”
- Mail-in voting: Blanche said the Supreme Court’s ruling blocking Trump’s efforts to restrict mail-in voting would not dissuade the administration from pursuing investigations and policy proposals to deal with alleged voter fraud. He also said he doesn’t think Americans have closely followed the back and forth over mail-in voting in the courts, downplaying any confusion over voting options.
- Artificial intelligence: Blanche said he does not believe that it’s the Justice Department’s role to regulate artificial intelligence — calling the technology “extraordinarily beneficial to our society,” while accusing Democrats of sounding the alarm now in a political bid to influence the midterms.
- Probe into Trump’s foes: Blanche said that the so-called “grand conspiracy” investigation into former government officials who previously pursued cases around Trump is going to continue, despite the departure of its lead prosecutor Joe diGenova last week.
- Arrest in alleged terror case: Blanche highlighted a new federal case against a 21-year-old Pennsylvania man accused of plotting an attack on behalf of ISIS. The man, Jonathan Hunter Kramer, was arrested yesterday on allegations that he intended to use firearms and ammunitions to commit a crime on behalf of a terrorist organization.
- Defending Hegseth: Blanche defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after a Republican congressman brought articles of impeachment against him. Blanche argued that Hegseth “follows the law” and is “doing a phenomenal job.”
- On Iran: Blanche pushed back on a reporter’s question characterizing the United States’ military action toward Iran as a war, despite several administration officials and the president having, at times, referred to the conflict as a war.
- Dismissed questions: Blanche waved off the legal and ethical questions surrounding the reporting that a Russian billionaire financed parts of Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding celebration in the Bahamas.
CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz, Kevin Liptak, Katelyn Polantz, Alayna Treene and Donald Judd contributed reporting.
Blanche says there's new information about Butler shooter but won't explain Trump's post
Attorney General Todd Blanche said there is new information about the shooter responsible for the assassination attempt against President Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign in Butler, Pennsylvania, but declined to explain Trump’s earlier comments — made without evidence — that the attempt was a “Democrat plot.”
“It is new information about the shooter and about his background, about his history. And that’s stuff that we didn’t know before. So that’s the new information,” Blanche told CNN’s Kristen Holmes during a Rose Garden press conference when asked about Trump’s comment.
Asked about the president calling on former FBI Director Christopher Wray to “pay a price for the way he handled this assassination attempt,” Blanche did not say whether the DOJ will take action against Wray. But he argued the president has long been frustrated with how the FBI handled things.
“As far as the president’s frustration with the FBI, I was there with him, I lived it. I mean, you have a situation where where it’s not really clear what the leadership of the FBI were doing in the weeks and months ahead of the attempted assassination to protect President Trump,” Blanche said.
“That’s the same organization that was simultaneously trying to put him in prison until he dies,” Blanche claimed, referring to federal cases against Trump while he was out of office.
Following Trump’s post, FBI Director Kash Patel testified on Capitol Hill that there was no evidence the Butler shooter was working with others.
“Director Patel has has undertaken a herculean effort to go through all the documents and understand what was missed, if anything, and to provide anything that hadn’t come forward to the American people, to the American people. And that’s what he’s done,” Blanche told reporters.
Attorney general shrugs off Russian billionaire financing Trump son’s wedding party
Attorney General Todd Blanche dismissed the legal and ethical questions surrounding the reporting that a Russian billionaire financed Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding celebration in the Bahamas.
“The president doesn’t know who this person is. I think other members of the family don’t know who this person is,” Blanche said of Umar Kremlev, the Kremlin-connected businessman who ProPublica reported paid for aspects of the party.
Trump Jr. and his wife, Bettina Trump, confirmed Tuesday in a joint statement on Instagram that Kremlev financed parts of the celebration.
“Our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding,” the statement said. “It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful.”
Blanche shrugged off the suggestion it was a matter worth investigating by the Justice Department.
“When you say, ‘Am I investigating?’ Am I investigating what?” he told reporters at a White House press briefing.
He also downplayed the notion Kremlev was close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite the fact that the businessman received an Order of Friendship award from Putin in April and traveled alongside him to China in May, according to ProPublica.
“I like that it’s fun to talk about this issue and the rhetoric around it, but I think all the relevant people involved, the president, his kids, have already addressed it,” he said.
Blanche downplays any voter confusion over mail voting
Attorney General Todd Blanche said he doesn’t think Americans have closely followed the back and forth over mail voting in the courts, downplaying any confusion over voting options.
“I’m not sure that the American people followed this as closely as the folks in this beautiful Rose Garden do,” Blanche said today at a White House briefing when asked about voter confusion over their mail-in voting options.
“So no, I haven’t seen any suggestion or information or heard from secretary of state that that’s an issue,” he added.
Blanche claimed that “ballots are confusing in every election” but that state and local officials handle this issue “very well.”
Blanche says it's not DOJ's role to regulate AI
Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday that he does not believe that it’s the Justice Department’s role to regulate artificial intelligence — calling the technology “extraordinarily beneficial to our society,” while accusing Democrats of sounding the alarm now in a political bid to influence the midterms.
“As far as AI is concerned, we have a lot of — there’s a lot of criminal laws, and so if anybody associated with AI violates criminal law, we’ll investigate that, we already have,” Blanche told reporters during a Rose Garden press briefing. “There’s plenty of cases involving AI that we’ve charged individuals. I do not think it’s the job of the Department of Justice to regulate. We’re prosecutors, not regulators, so we’re not going to try to regulate AI.”
Blanche’s comments come after President Donald Trump spent Monday angrily rejecting calls from AI industry leaders for more government regulation on their cutting-edge models, making clear in a daylong string of social media posts he considers outpacing China and preserving AI-driven economic gains a higher priority than addressing growing public concerns.
Speaking Tuesday, Blanche acknowledged that the debate around AI safety “conveniently has become a flashpoint this week,” after Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, called for a slowdown in the pace at which the technology advances in a lengthy essay shared on X.
And Blanche reiterated Trump’s claims that widespread alarm from Democratic lawmakers over AI safety are “a hoax” ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
“The way this has come around today, and not three months ago — I mean, I was watching the news today, every Democrat senator suddenly races to a microphone to talk about AI after being eerily silent for months and months and months,” he said. “So to talk about the timing of this as being nothing but an effort to influence the midterms, I shouldn’t have to say that out loud … and that shouldn’t be what drives the decisions that we’re making around AI.”
Blanche defends Hegseth amid GOP congressman's push to impeach him over Iran war
Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after a Republican congressman brought articles of impeachment against him, arguing that “follows the law.”
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky made a surprise push earlier Tuesday to impeach Hegseth for allegedly violating the War Powers Resolution by conducting a war against Iran without congressional authorization.
Blanche also pushed back on a reporter’s question characterizing the United States’ military action toward Iran as a war, despite several administration officials and the president having, at times, referred to the conflict as a war.
Investigation into Trump foes to continue without lead prosecutor, Blanche says
Attorney General Todd Blanche said that the so-called “grand conspiracy” investigation into former government officials who previously pursued cases around President Donald Trump is going to continue, despite the departure of its lead prosecutor Joe diGenova last week.
“We’re not going to slow down just because someone leaves,” Blanche said in the Rose Garden press conference.
Other Justice Department lawyers had a similar message just days ago for attorneys for former CIA Director John Brennan, according to a court filing yesterday. Brennan is under investigation for making an alleged false statement to Congress related to his work on intelligence about Russian influence in the 2016 election. He is also being pursued as a witness in a broader conspiracy case, his attorneys were told the day after diGenova resigned.
No indictments have been filed. But court proceedings and reporting have revealed the conspiracy idea to be an effort to potentially prosecute former officials who worked in the FBI, CIA and potentially other agencies from 2016, when Trump’s campaign was investigated for its connections to Russia, through 2022, when Trump’s Florida resort was searched for unsecured classified records.
When asked on Tuesday to comment on CNN’s reporting on Monday that he had fought with diGenova last week, Blanche said, “We’re very appreciative of the work that he did.”
White House press briefing with Todd Blanche has ended
Attorney General Todd Blanche just wrapped up a news briefing at the White House.
“I will tell you, the fact that Karoline Leavitt did this for as long as she did is incredible,” he told reporters before leaving the podium.
Blanche says administration could continue pursuing mail voting changes even after ruling
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Supreme Court’s ruling blocking President Donald Trump’s efforts to restrict mail-in voting would not dissuade the administration from pursuing investigations and policy proposals to deal with alleged voter fraud.
He said the Justice Department would comply with the ruling, but wouldn’t stop looking to make changes.
He left open the possibility the administration could continue pursuing changes to mail voting ahead of the 2028 presidential election.
“President Trump’s efforts to make sure that we have free and fair elections are not going to stop just in November or after or thereafter. So I expect you’re going to see that work continue,” he said.
Blanche described Trump as “very frustrated” at the court and defended the president’s earlier statement that the three justices he appointed had changed since he interviewed them during his first term.
“He has every right, and indeed he should communicate his concerns with the Supreme Court whenever he has them. This isn’t the first time that he’s done it, and it won’t be the last,” Blanche said.
Blanche opens briefing by touting new arrest in alleged terror case
Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday highlighted a new federal case against a 21-year-old Pennsylvania man accused of plotting an attack on behalf of ISIS.
The man, Jonathan Hunter Kramer, was arrested yesterday on allegations that he intended to use firearms and ammunitions to commit a crime on behalf of a terrorist organization.
Blanche highlighted the case as he began holding a White House press briefing in the Rose Garden.
According to court documents, Kramer, who was found responsible as a minor of planning a mass casualty event, offered to share explosive manuals with people online. He also allegedly expressed his intent to prepare for his “mission” and that he was just missing a “weapon,” according to prosecutors.
FBI agents surveilled Kramer as he allegedly purchased a disposable phone, met with an individual, and paid for a hotel room with cash. When they later executed search warrants, agents allegedly found a semiautomatic rifle, five magazines, a rifle bipod and scope, a prayer rug, pepper spray and approximately 30 knives. They also found a handwritten note stating “DoNt look For me[.] IDK what I did buT I cant live In constant Fear[.].”
Blanche holds White House press briefing
We’re now heading over to the Rose Garden, where Attorney General Todd Blanche is holding a White House press briefing,
We’ll bring you updates as we get them.
Key lines from Kash Patel's Senate oversight hearing today
FBI Director Kash Patel just wrapped up answering questions from lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The hearing sometimes got testy, as Patel fired back against criticism over his use of FBI resources, subpoenaing journalists and media reports alleging that he drinks to excess.
Here are the top lines from Patel:
- In his opening statement, Patel touted the casework of the bureau and stayed away from political infighting.
- Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the committee, asked Patel about violence during immigration operations that took place last year. Durbin asked if Patel stood by the “false statements” that US citizen Marimar Martinez, who was shot by a Customs and Border Protection agent in October, was chasing an agent before she was shot. Patel denied that his statements were false.
- A dozen agents and staff members who were experts on Iranian threats were fired earlier this year because of their alleged “weaponization” efforts, Patel said. CNN previously reported they were ousted because of their involvement in the investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
- On other departures, Patel claimed that the majority of agents who worked on the Trump January 6 election case had retired and were not fired. “There was no purging,” he said.
- Patel grew heated after New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker asked about his agency allegedly investigating journalists, including a New York Times reporter who earlier this year wrote about Patel’s girlfriend being “escorted by an FBI SWAT team.” Booker accused Patel of “using resources from the FBI in a way that he’s not willing to be transparent and open about” and called Patel a “thug.”
- Democratic Sen. Peter Welch asked Patel about his trip to Italy during the Olympics earlier this year. Patel reiterated that while he was in Italy, his agency arranged to have a “top cybercriminal” from the Chinese Communist Party deported to the US instead of going back to China.
- Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse asked Patel about pages of the Epstein files that were withheld from public release. Patel said he wasn’t aware of the 37 pages that Whitehouse was referencing.
- Lawmakers from both parties challenged Patel about why the bureau no longer automatically disqualifies some job applicants who allegedly committed crimes like soliciting prostitution and engaging in bestiality.
- Following a social media post from Trump calling into question the FBI’s investigation into the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, Patel reiterated there was no evidence the shooter was working with others.
- Patel said the bureau has a “ton” of safeguards in place to ensure artificial intelligence models do not “break free” from their intended purposes. He later said the FBI needs “a lot of money” to confront any potential AI threats.
CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz, Catherine Nicholls, Michael Williams and Holmes Lybrand contributed reporting to this post.
The Senate hearing with Kash Patel has ended
Lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned FBI Director Kash Patel for several hours today.
The hearing has now ended, but the agency head fended off criticism about his use of FBI resources, the threat of bad actors using AI and the Epstein files, among a range of other topics.
Patel claims there was no purge of agents who worked on Trump January 6 election case
FBI Director Kash Patel claimed during Tuesday’s congressional testimony that a majority of the agents who worked on the classified documents case against Donald Trump had retired and were not fired.
“My understanding is the overwhelming majority of those agents and FBI personnel retired,” Patel said when asked about past comments from now Attorney General Todd Blanche in March.
During a conservative conference, Blanche boasted that “there is not a single man or woman at the Department of Justice who had anything to do with those prosecutions.”
Blanche said all FBI or DOJ employees on the cases had either been fired, resigned, or took early retirement.
Patel was pressed by Democrat Sen. Adam Schiff as to whether agents who worked on the investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results had been purged from the department.
Many agents and federal employees across law enforcement have taken retirement options in the second Trump administration, as his rise has changed the face of the storied department.
Many agents involved in those cases and earlier investigations into Trump were fired by Patel and dozens have sued the FBI and Patel, alleging he violated their First Amendment rights, punished them for a case randomly assigned, and fired them without cause.
Patel says there are extensive AI safeguards at the FBI
FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau has a “ton” of safeguards in place to ensure artificial intelligence models do not “break free” from their intended purposes.
“We don’t just bring in AI and let it run loose,” the director said in response to a question from Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla.
Patel said any AI models used within the FBI are subjected to feedback and reviews to see whether they abide by FBI and Justice Department policies, and the law.
“We’re going to continue that effort every time an AI system comes in,” Patel said. “That’s the exact pattern that we execute at the FBI to make sure there’s no breaking free, for lack of a better phrase, of AI to run rampant.”
Patel later described the AI threat environment as a “new frontier” but said the bureau would need an “intake of a lot of money” to confront any potential issues.
“What we need is the ability to buy tech,” Patel said. “We don’t have the money to buy tech.”
This post has been updated with additional remarks from Patel.
FBI director is asked about deploying agents to polling stations during midterm elections
FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI would be monitoring elections in the upcoming midterms but wavered about where agents would be stationed.
Earlier in Tuesday’s hearing, Patel told Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar that he would follow federal guidelines that prohibit FBI agents from conducting investigations or being stationed inside open polling places on Election Day.
Shortly thereafter, Patel said that the FBI was going to “house our agents and intel analysts in our field offices for election security,” but expressed some skepticism that the bureau can’t deploy agents to the polls.
In an exchange hours later with Democratic Sen. Peter Welch, Patel grew angry over claims that he promised not to send agents to the polls.
“When did you hear that?” Patel asked, and Welch pointed to his comments earlier in the hearing about agents at the polls.
“Do you pledge that you will not, in any way, interfere in the will of the American people when they go to the polls in November?” Welch asked.
Patel said, “I pledge unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies.”
Sen. Booker calls Patel a "thug," alleging the FBI investigated journalists
FBI Director Kash Patel grew heated after New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker asked about his agency allegedly investigating journalists, including a New York Times reporter who earlier this year wrote about Patel’s girlfriend being “escorted by an FBI SWAT team.”
Asked if FBI agents interviewed Patel’s girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, or if they ran reporter Elizabeth Williamson’s name through federal databases to gather information about her, Patel did not answer.
“You can say whatever lies you want. We’re not going to participate,” Patel said.
Booker accused Patel of “using resources from the FBI in a way that he’s not willing to be transparent and open about,” also accusing the FBI director of attacking the press.
The senator also referenced the Trump administration’s subpoenaing of New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns around a Qatari-gifted jet serving as the new Air Force One, highlighting that this is something that Patel does “often.”
Patel said that his agency was not targeting journalists, accusing Booker of mischaracterizing.
In response, Booker said that “senators on both sides of the aisle should have to know why are you using FBI resources in ways that benefit yourself and your family and your girlfriend. But you won’t even answer questions.”
Patel again says there's no evidence of Butler assassination conspiracy
Following a social media post from President Donald Trump calling into question the FBI’s investigation into the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, FBI Director Kash Patel again reiterated there was no evidence the shooter was working with others.
“I think we looked at some 27 devices, exfiltrated all the data off of them, looked for connections to individuals in America and overseas,” Patel said of the investigation into the shooter’s devices. “We found no evidence that that individual was literally even speaking to any other human being other than his parents, who he resided with.”
But Patel’s attempt to squash conspiracy theories comes amid a continued release over the past several months of documents, using the Freedom of Information Act, related to the investigation.
“Everybody knows the Crooked Joe Biden FBI didn’t do what they should have with respect to the Lunatic who shot me in Butler, PA,” Trump posted on Tuesday, alleging that information around the shooting was “missing, altered, corrupted, or gone” and had newly been uncovered.
Trump oddly suggested the documents were part of a “Democrat Plot, to get me out of the Election.”
Congressional investigations, as well as those led by the Secret Service, FBI, and an independent panel, have all come to the same conclusion: The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, acted alone and was able to bypass security through clear human error on the part of federal and local law enforcement.
The FBI has also had to push back on the conspiracies born from the newly released documents in the past.
Sen. Welch presses Patel on trip to Italy during Olympics
Following a heated response from FBI Director Kash Patel to a question about media reports alleging that he drinks to excess, Vermont Democratic Sen. Peter Welch asked the agency head about his trip to Italy during the Olympics earlier this year.
Back in February, Patel garnered criticism after he was seen celebrating with the US men’s hockey team in Milan after their historic gold medal win over Canada, having traveled to Italy in a government plane.
Welch noted a post-9/11 government regulation that requires the FBI director to use government aircraft for all travel, including personal trips, but asked why Patel was in Italy in the first place.
Patel had “a dinner with the ambassador, an hour with Italy counterpart operatives, three 20-minute meetings, a security briefing and a 30-minute tour over four days, and then you barged into the celebration of our winning Olympic team,” Welch said.
Patel said that the US men’s hockey team, who he called his “friends,” invited him into their locker room to celebrate with them.
The FBI director also reiterated that while he was in Italy, his agency arranged to have a “top cybercriminal” from the Chinese Communist Party deported to the US instead of going back to China.
