Kash Patel, nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as FBI director, on Thursday pledged that the agency would not pursue “political retribution" against the employees of the office he hopes to helm.

The answer came after Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, asked Patel point-blank whether he could commit to not firing any FBI agents who worked on investigations of Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and mishandling of classified documents.