FBI Director Kash Patel appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his first oversight hearing Tuesday at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Kash Patel clashed with skeptical Democrats at a contentious Senate oversight hearing Tuesday, defending his record amid criticism that he has politicized the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency and pursued retribution against perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump.

The appearance Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee represented the first oversight hearing of Patel’s young but tumultuous tenure and provided a high-stakes platform for him to try to demonstrate that he is the right person for the job at a time of internal upheaval and mounting concerns about political violence inside the United States, a threat laid bare by last week’s killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a college campus in Utah.

The hearing broke along starkly partisan lines. Republicans rallied support for Patel even as Democrats said he had debased the integrity of the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency. Patel, for his part, accused Democrats of grandstanding for cameras and looking to score political points in a series of testy shouting matches that punctuated more sedate testimony about the criminal and national security threats facing the U.S.

“You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate, you are a disgrace to this institution and you are an utter coward,” Patel told Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California, raising his voice during one particularly testy exchange. “You can make an internet troll the FBI director, but he will always be an internet troll,” Schiff shot back as Patel continued to shout over him.

Patel sought to keep the focus on what he said was a series of accomplishments in fighting violent crime, protecting children from abuse and disrupting the flow of fentanyl. He similarly touted the FBI’s work in arresting within 33 hours the man suspected in Kirk’s assassination, but also faced questions over confusion he caused soon after the killing when he posted on social media that “the subject” was in custody.

That person was later released after investigators determined he had no connection. Patel said he had been trying to be transparent with the public and didn’t consider the post a mistake, but acknowledged he could have been clearer.

“Could I have been more careful in my verbiage and included ‘a’ subject instead of subject? Sure,” Patel said.

Democrats repeatedly tried to steer the hearing back to the turmoil inside the FBI, including a purge of experienced agents and supervisors that they said was a troubling about-face from his confirmation hearing pledge in January that he would not look “backwards” or seek retaliation as director.

“I’m not going to mince words: you lied to us,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat.

Patel angrily disputed that suggestion, and said that though he could not discuss the specifics of those firings due to the litigation, “Anyone that is terminated from the FBI, as I’ve said before, is done so because they failed to meet the standards and uphold their loyalty and oath to the Constitution.

Five agents and top-level executives were known to have been summarily fired last month in a wave of ousters that current and former officials say has contributed to declining morale.

One of those, Steve Jensen, helped oversee investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Another, Brian Driscoll, served as acting director in the early days of the Trump administration and resisted Justice Department demands to supply the names of agents who investigated Jan. 6. A third, Chris Meyer, was incorrectly rumored on social media to have participated in the investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

A lawsuit filed last week by three of the fired agents alleged that Patel understood that the firings were “likely illegal” but had to carry them out because he was ordered to do so from the White House. Patel on Tuesday denied taking orders from the White House on whom to fire.

The FBI director was also challenged on whether he was pursuing retaliation against perceived Trump foes, including through a fresh inquiry the bureau has undertaken related to the long-concluded FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse estimated that Patel had already taken some sort of adverse action against 20 of the 60 or so people who were singled out in what the Rhode Island Democrat described as an “enemies list” in a 2023 book Patel authored called “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth and the Battle for Our Democracy.”

The Justice Department, for instance, appeared to confirm in an unusual statement in July that it was investigating former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan, both pivotal players in the Russia saga.

“That is an entirely inaccurate presupposition,” Patel said. “I do not have an enemies list.”