President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, has a history of exaggerating his role in the Benghazi investigations, and at least one former Justice Department official wants to know the truth.
Speaking to MSNBC on Wednesday, former FBI general counsel and DOJ prosecutor Andrew Weissmann wants to know the specifics about Patel's resume — and discrepancies in it.
"If I were in the Senate, the issues I would have are: 1. Did you lie in your book when you, just like straight out, you said that you were leading the Benghazi matter and you weren't? And in your questionnaire to us, you say you're not, but that's not what you wrote in your book. Are you a liar?" Weissmann asked.
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Having a truthful person is important for an FBI director, he said.
Another brag from Patel was his claim that he was "very instrumental in reframing the January 6th defendants as hostages and embracing them."
Weissmann wants to know more about that and whether he supports the arrests by the FBI of those attackers.
"What are the facts? Because you want an FBI director," he continued. "To be governed by, shockingly, facts and have him talk about that. And the third area would be, with respect to something that we unfortunately don't know, which has to do with the [classified] Mar-a-Lago" documents.
Patel has said publicly that Trump declassified everything he had, and Weissmann has questions about it.
"To my mind, no matter how you cut it, that is problematic," he said. "If that is true, how could you go along with that? How could you not object to that? When you think about all of the material that we're talking about, the sort of nuclear secrets of this country and our adversaries, how could you possibly want to have a blanket declassification? If it's not true, we're back to the first topic, which is, did you lie for the president?"
See the discussion below or at the link here.