The story

FBI Director Kash Patel suggested Tuesday that he was open to sending federal agents to polling places during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. When Senator Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont, asked if he would send agents to the polls, Patel replied that the FBI has election crisis coordinators manned at all 56 field offices and that election integrity is of paramount importance. The remarks stood at odds with earlier comments indicating that he did not intend to send federal agents to polling places around the country.

When Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, asked Patel to commit that he would not send FBI agents to the polls on election day, Patel said the FBI would follow the law and would go to polling places if there was a violation. Bloomberg reported that Patel told senators he was not certain the bureau is legally barred from doing so, saying he did not know that the FBI cannot legally do it. Under the law, armed federal officers or military personnel are barred from being deployed at any place where a general or special election is held, and violations carry a potential five year prison sentence.

President Trump regularly declares the 2020 election he lost was rigged and has said the only way Democrats can win control of Congress this year is by cheating. Democrats have sought assurances from Trump administration officials that they will follow the law. The chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a letter to a Democratic senator last month that there were no plans for the armed forces to deploy troops to polling stations for the midterm elections.