At a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on September 15, 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel declined to commit that FBI agents would stay away from polling places in the November 3 midterm elections, and at one point told a senator he did not know that sending them would be illegal.
Early in the hearing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) asked whether he knew of “the Justice Department's long-standing guidance that states that FBI agents cannot conduct investigations inside polling places on Election Day, and that federal prosecutors have no authority to send FBI agents or deploy U.S. Marshals at polling places.” Patel answered, “I'm aware.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) then asked, “Can you commit to this committee that you will not send FBI agents to the polls on Election Day?” Patel said, “The FBI will follow the law. If there's a reason to go there because there's been a violation of the law, we will, otherwise we won't.” Asked whether deploying agents to the polls would be contrary to law, he said, “I don't know that we can't legally do it. I'm telling you we're going to house our agents and intel analysts in our field offices for election security.” Blumenthal said he was “dissatisfied that you are unable to give us an unequivocal, clear, unambiguous commitment that the FBI will be kept out of election interference.”
Hours later, Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) read Patel a remark by Rep. John James, the Republican nominee for governor of Michigan, who told podcaster Benny Johnson that “my friend Kash Patel” had said “the FBI will have a presence leading up to Election Day in Michigan.” Patel pointed to the bureau's election crimes coordinators in all 56 field offices, “so you bet we're going to have them there.” Outlets transcribed the rest of that sentence differently. Welch replied, “I thought you weren't going to be sending people to the polls.” Patel answered, “When did you hear that? It's just another lie,” and, asked to pledge not to interfere with voters in November, said, “I pledge unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies.” Pressed by Welch on Trump's claims that he won the 2020 election, Patel said, “There are many ongoing investigations surrounding that matter, so I'm not going to comment on it and stylize the evidence.” The FBI seized 2020 ballots and records from Fulton County, Georgia, in January, and no one has been charged (see FBI Seizure of Fulton County 2020 Ballots).
Patel did agree, when Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) asked, that the FBI has no plans to seize ballots, voting machines or other election material in the midterms, CBS News reported. Democracy Docket and Roll Call noted that federal law prohibits armed federal officers at election sites. Sources differ on how FBI election crimes coordinators normally operate on Election Day, and no FBI clarification of Patel's remarks was reported.
The precise record is that Patel would not rule out agents at the polls; he did not announce a plan to station them there. It came as the White House has not ruled out immigration agents at polling places (see The White House Won't Rule Out ICE at the Polls, and Denver Sues After Mullin Says Agents Could Serve Warrants There) and after FBI agents visited the homes of Wisconsin election officials (see Kash Patel's FBI Sent Agents to the Homes of Wisconsin Election Officials, Chasing Debunked 2020 Conspiracy Theories).
Update (October 18, 2026): on October 15, Sens. Alex Padilla, Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse wrote to Attorney General Todd Blanche noting that Patel had confirmed at the September 15 hearing that the FBI would follow the Justice Manual and not seize ballots or voting machines before certification, but that “the FBI Director reports to the Attorney General, so his commitment is contingent on your own.” They asked Blanche to commit publicly and to answer in writing by October 29, and said neither he nor Patel had answered Sen. Elissa Slotkin's September 1 letter. The Justice Manual itself shows the weakened rule: its section on election crimes says, “The Consultation Requirement is suspended while revisions are ongoing,” dated June 2025, suspending the requirement that prosecutors consult the Public Integrity Section before such steps. The department told senators in August that its Election Crimes Manual, removed from its website, “needs revising and updating.”