Sen. Marsha Blackburn Says Trump Admin, Kash Patel Will End ‘Two Tiers of Justice,’ ‘Political Weaponization’ of FBI

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) predicted on Thursday that President Donald Trump and Kash Patel, who was confirmed the same day as the new FBI Director, will end the “two tiers of justice” and “political weaponization” of the FBI.

Hours before she would vote to confirm Patel, the senator told Newsmax TV’s “Wake Up America” that the public is “thrilled” to see the Senate confirming those nominated to cabinet positions by President Donald Trump.

She told the network, “they know that for the last four years, there’s been two tiers of treatment, two tiers of access, two tiers of justice and they want to make certain that the country is back on track and that we take the actions to keep it there.”

The senator similarly wrote in a post to the social media platform X that Patel would, “return the FBI to its mission of hunting down criminals and terrorists” and “end the political weaponization of the FBI.”

Blackburn was among the Republicans who ultimately voted to confirm Patel on Thursday, when Trump’s nominee received 51 votes. All Republicans backed Patel with the exceptions of Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

After Trump nominated Patel following his victory last November, Blackburn predicted he would authorize the release of the “black book” and flight logs belonging to deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who allegedly committed suicide in a New York jail in 2019.

“I am confident Epstein’s flight logs & black book will be brought to light so we can break apart these sex trafficking rings.”

Patel, in a previous media appearance, previously revealed that the decision to release Epstein’s records could be made unilaterally by the FBI’s leader. He said the same applies to the manifesto left by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the biological woman who identified as a transgender man when she killed six at her former elementary school in Nashville on March 27, 2023.

“That’s under direct control of the Director of the FBI,” said Patel in December 2023.

“Just like the manifesto from the Nashville school shooter from the Nashville school shooting,” Patel added, “It’s not the Nashville Police or PD saying we don’t want this out. The FBI airmailed into that operation and said this is not getting out.”

Both Michael Patrick Leahy, who is the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, and Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, are plaintiffs in a lawsuit which seeks to compel the FBI to release Hale’s full manifesto.

Ahead of Patel’s confirmation, lawyers representing Leahy and SNDM extended a settlement offer to the Department of Justice that would see the FBI agree to release Hale’s writings in exchange for terminating the legal action. The DOJ has confirmed the FBI is considering the offer.

The Star legally obtained about 90 pages of Hale’s writings last year, and published them last September.

Watch Blackburn’s full appearance on Newsmax:

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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].