Kash Patel, President Trump's nominee to serve as FBI director, is set to appear Thursday on Capitol Hill for a high-stakes confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee amid calls from Republicans for massive reforms in FBI leadership and concerns from Democrats about his fitness to lead the nation's top law enforcement agency.

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a confirmation hearing Thursday.

Patel, like Trump, has taken a different view, saying the rioters have been mistreated by the criminal justice system. A former federal public defender and prosecutor, he has called them “political prisoners” and offered on at least one occasion to represent them for free.