President-elect Donald Trump He announced on Saturday that he would pick Kash Patel, the former chief of staff who served as acting defense secretary during Trump’s first administration, to serve as FBI director.
“Kash is a consummate lawyer, investigator and ‘America First’ fighter who has dedicated his career to exposing corruption, defending justice and protecting the American people,” Trump wrote in the letter. a post Telling The Truth Society, Patel will “bring back loyalty, bravery and integrity to the FBI.”
Patel, who must win Senate confirmation to become FBI director, has earned a reputation as an ultimate Trump loyalist by calling for the purge of enemies within the Justice Department and intelligence agencies.
Patel, a former public defender who rose to increasingly senior national security positions in the final year of Trump’s first term, promoted the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump and that federal bureaucrats were in Baseless claims of the “deep state.”
Patel called for replacing “anti-democratic” civil servants in law enforcement and intelligence agencies with “patriots” who he said would serve the American people, describing the current political moment in his memoir as “a battle between the people and the corrupt.” the struggle between them”. ruling class. “
“The Deep State is a cabal of unelected tyrants who believe they should decide who Americans can and cannot elect as president, who believe they can dictate what the president can and cannot do, and who believe they have the right to choose What Americans do.
Former intelligence officials, Democratic lawmakers and Western officials worry that hard-line Trump loyalists like Patel could reshape the composition and mission of the nation’s intelligence agencies, stripping them of their apolitical outlook and twisting assessments to adhere to the White House agenda. They fear that the worst-case scenario is that spy agencies could be turned into tools to target political opponents.
During the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Patel won the day when she drafted a memo as a congressional staffer accusing the FBI of making errors in obtaining a warrant for surveillance of a former Trump campaign volunteer. Trump’s favor.
Many of the claims in the memo have since been disproven. The inspector general report found flaws in FBI surveillance during the Russia investigation but also found no evidence that federal authorities acted in a politically partisan manner.
Patel later served on Trump’s White House National Security Council, briefly served as an adviser to the acting director of national intelligence, and served as chief of staff to Defense Secretary Chris Miller at the end of Trump’s first term.
In the final months of Trump’s term, the former president proposed that Patel serve as CIA deputy director or take over the FBI. Then-CIA director Gina Haspel, a career intelligence officer, threatened to resign if Patel took office, but then-Attorney General William Barr strongly objected. Trump ultimately abandoned his plan.
“Patel had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest levels of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency,” Barr later wrote in his memoir.
Former officials said Patel and some other Trump loyalists suspected the intelligence community was hiding information that could reveal more about a bureaucratic conspiracy against Trump and support for Joe Biden.
“It was a very conspiratorial environment,” said Marc Short, then-Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff.
Echoing Trump’s “deep state” rhetoric
Patel responded to Trump’s comments, labeling journalists traitors and calling out “Clean up” Allegedly disloyal federal bureaucrats. Last year, in an interview with longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon, Patel vowed to hunt down “conspirators” who he claimed were abusing their government positions.
“One of the things we learned in the first overhaul of the Trump administration is that we have to engage patriots across America from the top down,” Patel told Bannon.
“One thing we will do that they will never do is we will follow the facts and the law and go to the courts to correct these judges and lawyers who are prosecuting these cases on political grounds and actually issue them into law,” he said .
“We’re going to go out and find the conspirators, not just in the government but in the media — and yes, we’re going to go after those in the media who lied to American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig the presidential election. Whether it’s a criminal offense or As a matter of courtesy we will address it – but yes, we want to bring attention to it,” said Patel.
Trump and his allies first began referring to the “deep state” shortly after the 2016 election, casting the investigation into Russian election interference and its contacts with Trump’s campaign as an attempt to undermine his presidency.
Patel has joined Trump’s 2024 campaign and promoted his memoir, a movie based on it and a series of children’s books featuring him defending King Donald’s The Wizard.
He promotes his charity, the Cash Foundation, as a way to help those in need and provide funding for legal defenses to whistleblowers and others. But the foundation does not release its financial details.
according to tax declaration The foundation’s revenue increased to $1.3 million in 2023 from $182,000 in 2022, up from last year, with most of the money coming from donations. The foundation listed expenses at $674,000, including about $425,000 on advertising and marketing.
He still has Appeared A “warrior essential” anti-vaccine dietary supplement is being peddled on Truth Social, which is said to “reverse” the effects of the Covid-19 vaccine.
In his memoir, Patel recounted how after law school he dreamed of getting a job at a law firm and earning a “sky-high salary,” but “no one would hire me.” Instead, he became Miami’s public defender.
Speaking about his work at the Justice Department after serving as a public defender, Patel claimed to be the “lead prosecutor” in a federal case against a Libyan accused of involvement in the 2012 U.S. massacre in Benghazi. fatal attack on the hospital.
“I was the lead prosecutor in Benghazi,” Patel said in an interview on the YouTube channel hosted by former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan.
But in the Justice Department announcement at the time, Patel was not listed as the lead prosecutor or as a member of the legal team.
In a 2016 case in Houston involving a Palestinian refugee who pleaded guilty to supporting ISIS, federal judge Lynn Hughes scolded Patel and kicked him out of the courtroom. court transcripts.
The judge repeatedly questioned why Patel flew from Central Asia to attend the proceedings, as the judge said his presence was unnecessary. He also scolded Patel for being inappropriately dressed.
“Act like a lawyer,” the judge said. He accused Patel of being a Washington bureaucrat who would interfere in cases when he was not needed. “‘You’re just another non-essential employee in Washington.'”
In his memoir, Patel wrote that he rushed back from Tajikistan without a suit to wear to court and chose not to talk back to the judge “prepared for me” to avoid damaging the government’s terrorism case.
