'Ludicrous': Ex-FBI assistant director lays into 'confirmation conversions' of Trump picks

The confirmation hearings of Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard left intelligence experts questioning the quick evolution in their positions about important issues.

Frank Figliuzzi, who previously served as the FBI's assistant director for counterintelligence, criticized them for "confirmation conversions" — and suggested they were disingenuous.

"There's deep concern here," he told MSNBC on Thursday following the close of the morning hearings. "What we've seen today is ludicrous. They want — both these nominees — want us to believe that they've undergone confirmation conversions at the last minute. They want us to believe they've changed their mind on all their prior statements and positions, and suddenly, they're going to do the right thing."

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Figliuzzi called it "just strange credibility and credulity."

He went on to explain that both Gabbard and Patel "wouldn't make it through an FBI background investigation if they were applying for lower-level jobs." Their baggage is simply too great for such a high level of security clearance, he said.

"But because these are going to be nominees heading the agency, somehow we don't see this happening. This idea that Tulsi Gabbard's background investigation was, 'perfect, pristine,' whatever it was said — nonsense," he continued, citing concerns about Gabbard's trip to Syria in 2017. The group that paid for it has links to terrorism.

When it was reported, Gabbard reimbursed the group for the trip.

Figliuzzi recalled that when Pete Hegseth was nominated, the Trump transition team refused to turn over the full FBI background check to the Senate committee overseeing his confirmation hearing.

"I fear that's what's going on right now. Both of them are disqualified for these positions, and what's at stake?" he closed.

See the clip below or at the link here.

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