Seen as a controversial nominee, Patel is acquiring senate judiciary committee support for confirmation

Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, has broadly locked down support from Republicans on the Senate judiciary committee, paving the way for his confirmation to the role after the current director announced his intention to resign when the president-elect takes office in January.

The idea of securing support from the judiciary committee, according to two people familiar with the matter, is that if the committee reports out his nomination perhaps unanimously, it would make it politically harder for any skeptical Republicans to oppose him later.