Kash Patel’s Performative Deflections

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.During a Senate subcommittee hearing today, Democrats tried a variety of avenues to pin down FBI Director Kash Patel on reports about the bureau—about politicization of law enforcement as well as his personal conduct—but it was a simple question from Senator Chris Van Hollen at the end that produced the most telling response.“Do you know that it is a crime to lie to Congress?” the Maryland Democrat asked.Patel scowled and loudly reshuffled papers at his table. “I have not lied to Congress,” he said. He accused the senator of lying. He refused to look up. But as Van Hollen noted, Patel repeatedly sidestepped the actual question.“The director of the FBI apparently does not want to answer the question about whether or not it’s a crime to lie to Congress, and I find that extremely troubling,” Van Hollen said. “You are a disgrace, Mr. Director.”The exchange was a fiery end to a hearing that began with a bizarre exchange between Van Hollen and Patel but drifted into an odd stasis in the middle. The hearing, which also featured the leaders of the Drug Enforcement Agency, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, might otherwise have been a drab budget discussion, except that it was also senators’ first chance to question Patel on a series of recent press reports.In mid-April, my colleague Sarah Fitzpatrick reported on concerns inside the Trump administration about what FBI sources described as excessive drinking and unexplained absences. (In a follow-up story, Fitzpatrick also reported on the personalized bourbon bottles Patel has handed out as gifts.) Patel has denied the allegations in Fitzpatrick’s initial story and sued Fitzpatrick and The Atlantic for defamation, demanding $250 million; MS NOW also reported last week that Fitzpa