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The Senate on Thursday voted 51-49 to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted earlier this month, 12 to 10, to advance Patel to the full floor for a vote.
Patel held a number of national security roles during Trump's first administration — chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence and National Security Council official, Fox reports.
He worked as a senior aide on counterterrorism for former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, where he fought to declassify records he alleged would show the FBI's application for a surveillance warrant for 2016 Trump campaign aide Carter Page was illegitimate, and served as a national security prosecutor in the Justice Department.
In public comments, Patel has suggested he would refocus the FBI on law enforcement and away from involvement in any prosecutorial decisions.
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, he suggested his top two priorities are to "let good cops be cops" and transparency, which he described as "essential."
