← Chronicle · Confirmation · February 20, 2025

Kash Patel Confirmed as Director of the FBI, 51–49

Senate vote: 51–49

Kash Patel was confirmed by the Senate as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on February 20, 2025, by a vote of 51–49 (nomination PN12-35).

The mission that started here is the federal law-enforcement portfolio this chronicle tracks under the Justice & Crime hub: Patel took over a bureau in the middle of a leadership turnover at the Justice Department, with Deputy Director Andrew Bailey’s later departure (October 2, 2026) and Christopher Raia’s rise to sole deputy both recorded in this timeline. His deputies’ record and the bureau’s fraud and public-safety work are carried in the video pages tagged to him.

Sources: U.S. Senate roll call votes, 119th Congress, 1st Session (vote 61, February 20, 2025), senate.gov; Federal Bureau of Investigation.