{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-secures-commitment-from-fbi-director-patel-to-investigate-anti-christian-violence-ai-chatbots/", "Hawley Secures Commitment from FBI Director Patel to Investigate Anti-Christian Violence & AI Chatbots", "2025-09-16", "2025", "2025-09", "Republican", "Senate", "MO", "Josh Hawley", "H001089", "www.hawley.senate.gov", "hawley", "https://www.hawley.senate.gov/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "Today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) secured a commitment from FBI Director Kash Patel to further investigate the harms of AI chatbots and anti-Christian violence in the wake of Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination.\n\n\u201cI want to start by talking to you about the tide of violence that we have seen, ideological violence against people of faith, particularly Christians,\u201d Senator Hawley said. \u201cIs the FBI investigating the Kirk assassination as part of this broader pattern of anti-religious, anti-Christian violence?\u201d\n\nFBI Director Patel responded, \u201cWe are investigating Charlie\u2019s assassination fully and completely and running out every lead related to any allegation of broader violence, and we\u2019re producing results\u2026 Unfortunately, it has been leaked that there was a Discord chat, and for those unfamiliar with it, it\u2019s a gaming chat room online that the suspect participated in\u2026 and we\u2019re also going to be investigating anyone and everyone involved in that Discord chat.\u201d\n\nSenator Hawley then asked, \u201cI see the public reports that the Discord thread had as many as 20 additional users. It sounds like you\u2019re trying to run down all of that to see if that\u2019s accurate, who else may have been on that thread, is that fair to say?\u201d\n\nDirector Patel revealed, \u201cIt\u2019s a lot more than that and we\u2019re running them all down.\u201d\n\nTurning to the broader question of anti-religious violence, Senator Hawley asked,\u201cWhat is the FBI doing to take on this rising tide of violence that seems to be motivated by anti-religious hatred?\u201d\n\nDirector Patel replied, \u201cPublicly, I can tell you we have five hate crime investigations with anti-Catholic bias ongoing currently\u2026 any ideologically based attack against any faith, as a man of faith myself, will not be tolerated and the full resource the FBI are committed to all of it.\u201d\n\nSenator Hawley also asked about anti-religious investigations at the FBI under the previous administration saying, \u201cSadly, as you know, the FBI, when it comes to anti-religious animus, has been part of the problem before you got to this agency\u2026 How is it that the Federal Bureau of Investigation came to be recruiting informants in Christian churches in this country?\u201d\n\nDirector Patel responded, \u201cWe made adjustments and permanent fixes to ensure that sources are not put into houses of worship unless there is an actual ongoing criminal or international terrorism threat\u2026 There have been terminations related to this, and resignations.\u201d\n\nSenator Hawley went on to question Director Patel on the threat AI chatbots pose to minors saying, \u201cAre you investigating any cases of AI generated child sex abuse material?\u201d\n\nFBI Director Patel responded, \u201cWe are investigating dozens of those matters because let me just say this, as far as the FBI is concerned, generative AI that produces CSAM, Child Sexual Abuse material, under our investigative authorities is treated as equally as if it were actual Child Sexual Abuse material. There\u2019s no difference for me or the FBI on this.\u201d\n\nSenator Hawley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, will expand on Patel\u2019s comment regarding AI chatbots during his hearing to examine the growing harms online chatbots have posed to users, specifically children, across Big Tech platforms. The hearing will feature new testimony from parents of chatbot victims as well as AI safety experts and psychologists\u2014one of whom recently issued a health advisory for AI chatbots.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-secures-commitment-from-fbi-director-patel-to-investigate-anti-christian-violence-ai-chatbots/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.835765153169632, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}