Donald Trump, the president-elect, declared on Saturday that he will appoint 44-year-old loyalist Kashyap “Kash” Patel, who has minimal expertise in federal law enforcement, as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and America First fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”
In addition to spreading irrational “deep state” conspiracy theories and advocating for the removal of alleged Trump opponents from the FBI, Patel, who must receive Senate approval to take over as director of the FBI, has established a reputation as the quintessential Trump supporter.
“To be nominated by President Trump to be the Director of the FBI is an honor of a lifetime,” Patel said in a statement. “We will work together to restore our justice system’s accountability, honesty, and equal justice while putting the FBI back in its proper role of defending the American people.
Senate Republicans who rejected Trump’s nomination of Matt Gaetz, a fervent Trump supporter who was the subject of a criminal investigation for sex trafficking, to be Attorney General earlier this month are probably going to be pressured once more by Patel’s nomination.
Patel was deemed unfit for the role by a former top law enforcement official who had previously dealt with him.
It’s absurd. The former official, who wished to remain anonymous out of concern for Trump’s reprisals, said, “He’s probably the least qualified individual ever nominated for a senior position in federal law enforcement.” “I’m not aware of any noteworthy accomplishments he made at the DOJ. His reputation as a prosecutor was low.
Trump also suggested Patel lead the FBI in the latter months of his first administration. When then-attorney general William Barr strongly opposed, Trump abandoned his intentions.
Barr subsequently stated in his memoir that Patel lacked the experience necessary to hold a position at the top of the world’s most prestigious law enforcement organization.
Patel has propagated the unfounded conspiracy theory that federal officials in the deep state attempted to topple the previous president and the lie that Trump was cheated out of the 2020 election.
Patel has demanded that patriots who will serve the American people take the place of anti-democratic civil workers in intelligence and law enforcement. According to his autobiography, “Government Gangsters,” the contemporary political climate is a conflict between the populace and an unscrupulous ruling class.
Patel wrote, “The Deep State is an unelected group of despots who believe they should decide who Americans can and cannot elect to the presidency.” “Those who believe they have the authority to determine what the American people can and cannot know, as well as what the president can and cannot do.”
Such allegations have been rejected as politically motivated conspiracy theories by former FBI and DOJ personnel. They point out that no top officials were charged with crimes as a result of Special Counsel John Durham’s years-long inquiry into the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe.
Democratic senators are concerned that Patel, a hard-line Trump zealot, may change the composition and goals of the country’s most powerful federal law enforcement agency. Additionally, they contend that any firing of FBI personnel thought to be disloyal to Trump is intended to scare away anyone who would dare look into the President’s actions.
Additionally, Patel’s nomination by Trump defies the post-Watergate standard that FBI directors hold office for ten years. Ensuring that the FBI is perceived as apolitical and not supporting a particular president’s political agenda is the aim of the practice. Christopher Wray, the current director of the FBI, will finish his ten-year tenure in 2027.
The same problem was brought up by White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Sunday, who noted that Trump chose Wray during his first term.
“The Biden administration adhered to the long standing norm that FBI directors serve out their full terms because the FBI director is a unique player in the American government system,” Sullivan commented on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
That’s how we go about things. Additionally, we want to make sure that the FBI continues to be a politically neutral organization,” Sullivan continued.
“Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats,” the FBI said in a statement following Trump’s move. The men and women of the FBI, the people we work with, and the people we work for continue to be Director Wray’s primary focus.
Echoing Trump s deep state claims
In the last year of Trump’s first administration, Patel, a former federal prosecutor and public defense, advanced to increasingly senior national security positions.
In 2017, while working as a congressional staffer for former California Representative Devin Nunes, Patel initially won Trump’s favor. The FBI’s investigation into Russia’s election meddling and its outreach to Trump campaign members in 2016 were perceived by Trump and his supporters as an effort to undermine his presidency.
In a document he wrote, Patel accused the FBI of obtaining a warrant improperly in order to spy on Carter Page, a former adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Many of the claims made in the memo were eventually shown to be false. Although the FBI’s surveillance during the Russia probe was criticized in an inspector general report, there was no proof that federal authorities had behaved in a politically oriented manner.
Later, near the end of Trump’s first term, Patel served as chief of staff to Defense Secretary Chris Miller and as an assistant to the interim director of national intelligence in the White House National Security Council.
During his last months in power, Trump not only suggested that Patel be the deputy CIA director, but also that he be the director of the FBI. Career intelligence officer Gina Haspel, the then-CIA Director, vowed to quit if Patel was put in place.
According to former officials, Patel and a few other Trump supporters believed there was evidence buried deep within the intelligence community that may provide additional insight into bureaucratic schemes against Trump and in support of Joe Biden.
Marc Short, the chief of staff to then-Vice President Mike Pence, remembered that the atmosphere at the time was fairly conspiratorial.
Patel has also repeated Trump’s statements that journalists are traitors and that federal civil officials who are accused of being disloyal should be fired. Last year, Patel promised to target conspirators who he said had misused their government positions in an interview with veteran Trump ally Steve Bannon.
During the first round of the Trump administration, Patel informed Bannon, “We have to put in all-American patriots from top to bottom.”
And the one thing we will do that they will never do is that we will go to court and follow the law and the facts,” he stated. “And correct these justices and lawyers who have been prosecuting these cases based on politics.”
“Not only will we go out and find the conspirators in the government, but we will also pursue those in the media who fabricated stories about Americans in order to help Joe Biden rig the presidential election,” Patel declared. “Whether it s criminally or civilly, we re going to figure that out but yeah, we re putting you all on notice.”
A wizard defending King Donald
Alongside Trump during the 2024 campaign, Patel has marketed his book, its movie version, and a series of children’s books in which he plays a wizard supporting King Donald.
He has promoted the Kash Foundation, his charity, as a means of aiding the poor and giving money for legal defense to those who come forward with information about wrongdoing.
The majority of the foundation’s revenue, which climbed to $1.3 million last year from $182,000 in 2022, came from donations, according to tax records for 2023. About $425,000 of the $674,000 in expenses reported by the foundation went toward marketing and advertising.
Patel has also been on Truth Social, selling anti-vaccine food supplements called Warrior Essentials, which are said to counteract the effects of the COVID-19 vaccination.
In his memoir, Patel describes how, after graduating from law school, he hoped to work for a law firm and earn a huge income, but no one would hire him. Rather, he moved to Miami to work as a public defender.
Regarding his time as a Justice Department prosecutor, Patel has claimed he was the lead prosecutor for a federal case against a Libyan accused of taking part in the lethal 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi.
In an interview with Shawn Ryan, a former Navy SEAL, on his YouTube channel, Patel stated, “I was the main Justice lead prosecutor for Benghazi.”
However, Patel was not identified as the main prosecutor or as a member of the legal team in the Justice Department’s releases at the time.
At a 2016 proceeding in Houston for a case involving a Palestinian refugee who pleaded guilty to supporting ISIS, a federal judge, Lynn Hughes, dressed down Patel and kicked him out of the chambers, according to acourt transcript.
The court stated Patel’s presence was unnecessary and asked him twice why he had gone all the way from Central Asia to attend the hearing. Additionally, he chastised Patel for not dressing adequately.
The judge said to behave like a lawyer.
In his memoir, Patel wrote that he had rushed back from Tajikistan and did not have a suit to wear to the courtroom. He chose not to talk back to the judge, he wrote, who had it out for me to avoid damaging the government s terrorism case.
A former senior federal law enforcement official who served under Trump during his first term said that the Patel and Gaetz nominations were signs of Trump’s disdain for the DOJ and FBI and both agencies’ efforts to not be used to settle political scores.
“He’s just going to run roughshod over them,” predicted the former official, who asked not to be named due to fear of retaliation by Trump. “He s thumbing his nose at the DOJ and FBI with these nominations. He s going to effect his will regardless of our norms.”
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