Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee for FBI Director, advanced in the first procedural vote in the confirmation process.

The Senate voted 48-45 along party lines to advance Patel’s nomination and open debate.

According to the New York Post, Patel is expected to be confirmed on Thursday.

BREAKING: U.S. SENATE ADVANCES TRUMP FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE KASH PATEL IN PROCEDURAL VOTE

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) February 18, 2025

From the New York Post:

GOP senators have praised Long Island native Patel, 44, for his experience as a prosecutor and former national security aide in the first Trump administration — as well as his firm commitment to rooting out political “weaponization” at the FBI and getting back to the basics of the bureau’s law enforcement duties.

In his confirmation hearing, Patel pledged to “cut in half” the number of offenses committed across broad categories of crimes, including the “100,000 rapes … 100,000 drug overdoses from Chinese fentanyl and Mexican heroin, and … 17,000 homicides.”

The nominee, who has celebrated rank-and-file FBI agents for being “courageous, apolitical warriors of justice,” will serve a 10-year term if confirmed as one of the nation’s chief law enforcement officers.

“Mr. Patel has undergone a rigorous vetting,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a hearing last week. “He produced more than a thousand pages of records and disclosed over a thousand interviews. He underwent an FBI background investigation, produced a financial disclosure, and worked with ethics officials to identify and resolve potential conflicts of interest.”

“At his hearing, he answered questions for more than five hours and provided 147 pages of responses to written questions,” Grassley added. “We’ve examined every detail of his life, and he’s been subjected to relentless attack on his character the whole time.”

🚨Just in. The U.S. Senate had voted 48-45 to advance Kash Patel's @Kash_Patel nomination for FBI Director in a procedural vote pic.twitter.com/dYz13GZzaq

— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) February 18, 2025

🚨BREAKING🚨

The Senate just voted 48-45 to advance Kash Patel's nomination as FBI Director.

Final passage is expected later this week. The entire Senate should support President Trump's nominee and vote to CONFIRM Kash's nomination. pic.twitter.com/6umkl5HQFs

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) February 18, 2025

Per Reuters:

Patel, a former intelligence and Defense Department official in Trump’s first term, has called for a radical reshaping of the FBI, pledging to expand its role on illegal immigration and violent crime, core Trump priorities.

Patel has been among the most vocal critics of FBI investigations into Trump on issues ranging from Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Florida club and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Democrats have called Patel unfit to lead the FBI, pointing to his embrace of false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election and FBI agents fomenting the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. But Patel has attracted broad support from Republicans, who have touted him as a reformer.

A Senate panel voted 12-10 along party lines last week to send his nomination to the full Senate.