Sen. Dick Durbin called out Republicans Tuesday after revealing that Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee only received a months-old letter from FBI Director Kash Patel the night before Patel appeared for an oversight hearing.
Durbin interrupted the proceedings after Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) referenced the letter, which Patel sent him in July addressing allegations involving the misuse of an FBI aircraft.
“For the record, we were given this letter on the Democratic side not on July 20, but last night. Last night,” Durbin said.
The Illinois Democrat pushed back on the suggestion that the letter had previously been publicly available.
“To say that this was a public letter, it may have started being public last night, but we had never seen it before,” he said, adding that the letter explained "some of the charges that have been made and the misuse of aircraft at the FBI."
The exchange came as Patel faced questioning from senators over his leadership at the FBI, including scrutiny of his travel and use of government resources. Durbin argued that keeping committee Democrats waiting nearly two months for the document undermined their ability to conduct oversight.
“If we’re going to have an honest exchange and investigation of attorneys general of both political parties, there should be a timely disclosure of an important document like this,” Durbin said.
The hearing moved on as Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) began questioning Patel.