Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa, is now reading several emails sent by FBI agents that he says have never before been made public.

These messages, Grassley says, prompted the investigation into Donald Trump which was led by special counsel Jack Smith.

The emails are fairly detailed and we can't see them for ourselves, but the broader argument the senator is trying to make is that the FBI was politically biased against Donald Trump and launched an investigation into him because of that. That's been Kash Patel's main argument on what he would change about the agency.

"Partisan FBI and DOJ officials tried, and ultimately succeeded, in launching a full-field criminal investigation and prosecution of the President of the United States," Grassley says, calling it a "scheme to take down Trump".

Committee chairman Senator Chuck Grassley opens the hearing by saying public trust in the FBI has "declined".

He says the institution has been "plagued" by "abuse" and a "lack of transparency".

However, he adds, the FBI "remains important" and is an "indispensable institution for law in order in our country".

Addressing Patel, he tells him his role will be to "restore" public trust - adding that his "extensive background" puts him in a unique position to do so.

Image source, Reuters

The Kash Patel confirmation hearing has just begun.

We'll be bringing you the key lines here in this page or you can follow along yourself by clicking Watch Live above.

Ana Faguy
US reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Kashyap Pramod Patel, a one-time defence department chief of staff, is a fervent Trump supporter and outspoken critic of the FBI, the US government's principal law enforcement agency that he is now seeking to lead.

He is also a conservative media personality with the podcast Kash's Corner and a series of children's books, including The Plot Against the King.

In his 2023 memoir Government Gangster, Patel called for an eradication of what he labelled "government tyranny" within the FBI by firing "the top ranks".

An appendix in the book has made headlines as his "enemies list" - a register of 60 people, including former President Joe Biden, former Attorney General Merrick Garland and former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who he says are members of the "deep state".

Patel frequently speaks about the "deep state" - which many conservatives believe to be a cabal of unelected bureaucrats that they argue plotted to undermine Trump's agenda during his first presidency.

Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi, who would be Patel's boss if both are confirmed by the Senate, has said there would be no enemies list at the justice department under her leadership.

Patel, the son of Indian immigrants, is a former defence lawyer and federal prosecutor.

After becoming senior counsel to the House of Representatives intelligence committee in 2017 he caught the president's attention. Trump hired him as a national security aide in 2019 and in 2020 he was appointed chief of staff to the head of the Pentagon.

He is on the board of Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns Trump's social media platform, Truth Social. He has also reportedly had a consulting contract with the company.

Image source, Getty Images

A military veteran who served with a medical unit in Iraq, Tulsi Gabbard has set a number of political precedents in her career as a Democratic lawmaker.

She was first elected to the Hawaii State Legislature aged 21 in 2002, the youngest person ever elected in the state. She left after one term when her National Guard unit was deployed to Iraq.

Gabbard went on to represent Hawaii in Congress from 2013 until 2021 - becoming the first Hindu to serve in the House.

She previously championed liberal causes like government-run healthcare, free college tuition and gun control. These issues were part of her 2020 run for the Democratic presidential nomination - which she eventually dropped out of, endorsing Joe Biden.

In 2022 she left the Democratic Party and initially registered as an independent - accusing her former party of being an “elitist cabal of warmongers” driven by "cowardly wokeness". She became a contributor to the conservative Fox News channel and was vocal on gender and freedom of speech issues.

Just a few months prior to the 2024 election, Gabbard announced that she had chosen to endorse Donald Trump and later joined the Republican Party. She was a fixture on the campaign trail for the president.

Brandon Livesay
Reporting from New York

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.

Today is once again full of intrigue, with some of President Donald Trump's more controversial nominations to face Senate confirmation hearings.

We have:

• Tulsi Gabbard - the pick for Director of National Intelligence (DNI)
• Kash Patel - the pick for FBI director
• Robert F Kennedy Jr - the pick for Health Secretary (this is his second day of being grilled by Senators)

Each of these nominees will face tough questions, for a variety of reasons we will soon unpack.

You can watch the Gabbard hearing live at the top of this page. And we will bring you updates from all three throughout the day.

Stick with us.