Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) slammed FBI Director Kash Patel on CNN Friday over reports that the bureau has stepped up the use of polygraph tests to screen employees for loyalty.
“This is a really dangerous precedent, right? I understand if you’re talking about a political appointee, but these are just public servants who put their lives at risk,” Quigley said. “Their own personal opinions about how they feel about the FBI director, those are theirs. We can’t have this purity test.”
The New York Times reported Thursday that the FBI has “significantly” increased its use of the lie-detector test. Senior officials have been asked whether they have said anything negative about Patel, while polygraphs have also been used in probes to find leakers, the Times reported.
“I don’t need a lie-detector test to tell the American people that Kash Patel is an extraordinarily unqualified sycophant who will do what the president of the United States says, even if it violates the Constitution,” Quigley said.
“That scares me. And this is just additional evidence of the fact that his primary concern is defending the president.”
Quigley was one of more than 30 House Democrats who signed a letter in February opposing Patel’s nomination to the FBI’s top job.
Patel is a longtime President Trump loyalist who served in various roles in his first administration, including on the National Security Council. He did not have any previous FBI experience prior to leading the agency.
He has faced criticism from another flank this week — diehard MAGA influencers — after the FBI and the Department of Justice released a report seeking to settle outstanding questions about disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Far-right media figures have focused much of their ire on Attorney General Pam Bondi, who previously said she was reviewing an “Epstein client list,” before saying no such thing existed in the new memo.
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