The Department of Justice’s systematic firings of eight top FBI career leadership officials and promise to investigate any agent involved in Jan. 6 prosecutions is not only alarming and well beyond the scope of its mission. It could also be a precursor to what is ahead if the U.S. Senate does not exercise its constitutional obligation and check the effort of weaponizing the FBI to pursue President Trump’s perceived enemies.

Recent reporting asserts that FBI nominee Kash Patel has been working behind the scenes with Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove (the same Bove who directed federal prosecutors to dismiss the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, just weeks after the president and Adams met, and Adams agreed to offer NYC resources to assist ICE immigration efforts) to clean house at the FBI.

Mr. Patel and Mr. Bove have ordered the FBI to compile lists of all current and former personnel who worked on investigations related to Jan. 6, 2021. That list could include as many as 6,000 officers. Firing or even reprimanding thousands of FBI officers for faithfully upholding the law is wrong and threatens to undermine public safety. It will also have disastrous consequences because it takes 12-18 months for new agents to complete their training and there is no substitute for career experience.

To be clear, concerns with Mr. Patel’s character and qualifications are in no way partisan.

Indeed, a former Republican director of both the FBI and CIA, William Webster, has urged lawmakers not to confirm Mr. Patel. Director Webster wrote, “Special agents who risk their lives protecting this country from criminals and terrorists are now being placed on lists and having their careers jeopardized for carrying out the orders they were given by their superiors in the FBI.” These actions “are creating dangerous distractions, imperiling ongoing investigations and undermining the Bureau’s ability to work with state, local and international partners to make America safe again.”

Former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr characterized Mr. Patel’s qualifications as “someone with no background as an agent (who) would never be able to command the respect necessary to run the day-to-day operations of the Bureau.”

Mr. Patel’s record and lack of requisite qualifications threatens to undermine our country’s faith in public institutions, and in particular law enforcement. Law enforcement has extraordinary tools at its disposal, including arrest, imprisonment and the use of deadly force. We entrust law enforcement with this responsibility as we expect them to be guided by the rule of law and protecting the public, not the personal desires of any elected official. Even the appearance of actions within the FBI to curry favor and prosecute political opponents questions the agency’s integrity, and with it public trust.

Former Attorney General Edward H. Levi observed back in 1975, “Since laws exist for the common good, they must be enforced with fairness, evenhandedness, and a proper and common concern for each individual.”

The risk that Mr. Patel intends to recast the FBI into a tool of revenge is in no way contrived. Mr. Patel has even written a children’s book, “The Plot Against The King,” a self-concocted allegory of how Kash the wizard becomes King Trump’s savior. Patel also wrote an adult book, “Government Gangsters,” which includes an appendix titled “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State,” commonly referred to as his “enemies list.”

This list is a who’s who of recent elected officials and directors, notably Bill Barr, John Bolton, Kamala Harris, Merrick Garland, James Comey and more, some of whom have moved to secret residences as they fear being targeted. During a 2023 interview with Steve Bannon, Patel said the Justice Department under Trump would “come after” members of the media.

Mr. Patel said in January 2024 on “The Alec Lace Show,” “We need to really educate the world on the weaponization of justice that occurred on January 6th.” He went so far as to describe the prosecutions of U.S. Capitol rioters as “baseless.”

The record is clear that Jan. 6 was a violent day. A total of 140 police officers were injured; they were punched, kicked, pepper sprayed and Tased. The idea that the person who will lead our federal law enforcement agency has called the prosecution of the individuals who attacked Capitol Police “baseless” lacks the qualifications to lead that agency.

Unlike past directors who come with extensive experience in high-level positions in the DOJ and FBI, Patel has limited investigative experience. Most of his work has been hyper-partisan and intended more to drive wedges through society than to protect the public. As a congressional staffer he acted to actively discredit FBI investigations before moving to various positions within the first Trump administration, ultimately reaching his ceiling when then CIA Director Gina Haspel allegedly threatened to quit if he was made her deputy.

The loyalty of the FBI needs to be to the United States Constitution and the rule of law, not to a president or political party. Even the appearance of bias or favor necessitates the Senate to exercise its constitutional check on executive power.

In the words of the most recent FBI director, Christopher Wray, who was confirmed by a vote of 92-3: “No matter what’s happening out there— in here, we’ve got to stay committed to doing our work the right way every time. With professionalism, with rigor, with integrity. That means following the facts wherever they lead, no matter who likes it or doesn’t.”

The reins of the FBI must not be handed to political henchmen. Instead, they must be entrusted to career crime fighters who have proven themselves to always put justice above politics. Kash Patel is not that person.