Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) attended the swearing in ceremony for Kash Patel on Friday as he took the oath of office to become the nation’s ninth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
It was an honor to watch @FBIDirectorKash be sworn in at the White House.
It’s time to Make the FBI Trustworthy Again! pic.twitter.com/65kxI2flft
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) February 21, 2025
“Today marks the end of two tiers of justice at the FBI,” Blackburn said on Friday ahead of Patel’s swearing in ceremony.
“Under Kash’s leadership, the only people who will be targeted are criminals [and] terrorists,” Blackburn added.
Blackburn was one of the 51 U.S. senators who voted to confirm Patel to the role on Thursday.
In addition, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Blackburn also voted with the majority to advance Patel out of the committee after he testified before lawmakers on the committee for more than five hours, disclosed thousands of pages of records and media appearances, and provided 147 pages of responses to written questions.
During Patel’s confirmation hearing in front of the committee, Blackburn questioned Patel if he would work to approve her subpoena to the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s estate to provide the flight logs for his private plane.
“Will you work with me on this issue so we know who worked with Jeffrey Epstein in building these sex trafficking rings?” Blackburn asked Patel during his confirmation hearing.
Patel said he will “absolutely” work with Blackburn on the issue, adding, “Child sex trafficking have no place in the United States of America and I will do everything…to make sure the American public knows the full weight of what happened in the past and how we are going to counterman missing children and exploited children going forward.”
After being confirmed as FBI director on Thursday, Patel said, “The American people deserve an FBI that is transparent, accountable, and committed to justice. The politicalization of our justice system has eroded public trust—but that ends today.”
“My mission as Director is clear: let good cops be cops—and rebuild trust in the FBI,” Patel added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Patel Swearing-In” by Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
