Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's pick for FBI director, faces members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in his confirmation hearing Thursday.

Patel, a staunch Trump ally, was the acting deputy director of national intelligence during the last year of Trump's first presidency. He has said it's his mission to "annihilate" the so-called "Deep State" of "unelected tyrants" inside government.

Among his supporters, Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has called Patel's career "a study in fighting for unpopular but righteous causes, exposing corruption, and putting America First."