Donald Trump has appointed Kashyap “Kash” Patel as FBI director and nominated a loyalist and “deep state” critic to lead the federal law enforcement agency that the president-elect has long labeled corrupt.
Patel, 44, has worked as a federal prosecutor and public defender but rose to prominence in Trump circles after expressing outrage over the agency’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the presidential election of 2016. He has called for the resignation of FBI leadership as part of an effort to “take control” of federal law enforcement.
If confirmed, Patel would replace Christopher Wray, the FBI director appointed by Trump in 2017 after then-President James Comey fired over the FBI’s Russia collusion investigation.
Comey later testified to Congress that there was no evidence of any conspiracy, but that the FBI had a “basis to investigate the matter.”
Patel had ties to former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, who led opposition to Special Counsel Robert Muller’s Russia investigation while chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Upon his nomination for FBI director, Trump said in a statement on Truth Social that Patel is “a brilliant lawyer, investigator and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice and protecting of the American people.”
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“Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring loyalty, courage and integrity back to the FBI,” Trump added.
Trump touted Patel’s service during his first term as chief of staff at the Defense Department, deputy director of national intelligence and senior director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council.
Patel, he said, “played a critical role in exposing the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, and acted as an advocate for truth, accountability and the Constitution.”
“This FBI will end America’s growing crime epidemic, dismantle immigrant criminal gangs and end the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the border,” he said.
If confirmed by the Senate — Gina Haspel, CIA director during Trump’s first term, reportedly threatened to resign in 2020 when Trump sought to install Patel as her deputy — Patel will likely prove to be a loyal operative of Trump’s desire to reform what the newly elected president considers Washington’s bureaucratic ascendancy.
Patel told the Conservative Political Action Conference in July that it was necessary to “identify the people in government who are crippling our constitutional republic.”
Trump has called Patel’s 2023 book “Government Gangsters,” in which he advocated firing government workers who undermine the president’s agenda, a “blueprint to take back the White House.”
The reforms Patel outlined in the book “to defeat the deep state” include moving FBI headquarters out of Washington to “keep FBI leadership from engaging in political gamesmanship” and downsizing the office of the General Counsel, which he said was hired pursuant to “prosecution orders.” to make”.
