FBI director says bureau needs more funding than what Trump administration budget proposal calls for

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON AP FBI Director Kash Patel broke with the Trump administration Wednesday over a budget proposal that would dramatically slash funding for the bureau telling lawmakers We need more than what has been proposed The budget proposal distributed on Friday calls for a funding cut of more than million for the FBI as part of what the White House declared was a desire to transformation and streamline the bureau and reduce non-law enforcement missions that do not align with the priorities of President Donald Trump He warned that such a cut would be harmful for the FBI as it reorients priorities to focus on violent crime Appealed to specify at a House Appropriations subcommittee which positions would need to be cut if the funding reduction was implemented Patel replied At this time we have not looked at who to cut We are focusing our energies on how not to have them cut by coming in here and highlighting to you that we can t do the mission on those budget levels Related Articles GOP lawmakers berate Haverford College president for not discussing discipline for antisemitism Trump designates Thursday as a day for US to celebrate triumph in World War II Here s what it means States sue the Trump administration for blocking funds for electric motorcycle charging Judge says US must allow immigrants a chance to challenge in court any deportations to Libya President Donald Trump taps wellness influencer close to Robert F Kennedy Jr for surgeon general Rep Rosa DeLauro a Connecticut Democrat pressed Patel for details saying This is your budget You have to have certain idea of what you want to fund or not fund or where you can cut or not cut and provide that information to the Office of Management and Budget That s the proposed budget not by the FBI Patel replied The proposed budget that I put forward is to cover us for for billion which would not have us cut any positions Patel also defended the FBI s plan to relocate about FBI employees from the Washington area to cities around the country one of the first initiatives he revealed upon being sworn in as director in February Part of the process is not just putting people out sporadically throwing darts on the map What we ve done is we ve taken a process with the career employees at the FBI and declared Where are certain of the bulk violent crime places in America Patel disclosed Patel also clashed during one contentious exchange with Democratic Rep Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania who served as a House impeachment manager during the second of two impeachment cases against Trump in his first term She asserted that the FBI had become weaponized under Patel and confronted him over a book he had authored saying a list of Trump adversaries he included in it amounted to an enemies list and was being used by Trump as a blueprint for revenge Patel replied that he was the one who had been targeted by a weaponized FBI presumably referring to the fact that he was among the people whose records were secretly seized by the Justice Department years earlier as part of media leak investigations when he was a staffer on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence conducting an study into Russian electoral contest interference You should read the book because there s no enemies list in that book Patel continued There are people that violated their constitutional obligations and their duties to the American people and they were rightly called out And you should give that book to every one of your constituents so they can read about it I won t be doing that Dean shot back That s their loss Patel mentioned