President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday his selection of Kashyap “Kash” Patel to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He is a 44-year-old Loyalist with little experience in federal law enforcement.
“Mr. Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, upholding justice, and protecting the American people,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Ta” he wrote. “He played a pivotal role in debunking Russia, Russia, and Russian disinformation, and served as a champion of truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”
Patel, who must be confirmed by the Senate to become FBI director, is the ultimate Trump supporter who has spread baseless “deep state” conspiracy theories and called for the FBI to be purged of Trump’s enemies. It has gained a reputation as
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime honor to be nominated by President Trump to lead the FBI,” Patel said in a statement. “Together, we will restore integrity, accountability, and equal justice to our judicial system and restore the FBI. I will let them do so.” Toward a legitimate mission to protect the American people. ”
Patel’s nomination is likely to put renewed pressure on Senate Republicans, who rejected the attorney general nomination earlier this month of Matt Gaetz, a Trump ally who is under criminal investigation for sex trafficking.
A former law enforcement official who has interacted with Mr. Patel in the past said he was not qualified to hold the job.
“It’s ridiculous. He’s probably the most unqualified person ever nominated to a senior federal law enforcement position,” said a former official who requested anonymity due to concerns about retaliation from President Trump. . “I don’t know of any significant accomplishments he accomplished at the Justice Department. He was not well-regarded as a prosecutor.”
In the final months of Trump’s first term, Trump also offered Patel to lead the FBI. Trump withdrew the plan after then-Attorney General William Barr vehemently opposed it.
“Patel had virtually no experience to qualify him to serve at the highest levels of one of the world’s leading law enforcement agencies,” Barr later wrote in his memoir.
Patel has promoted the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and the baseless conspiracy theory that “deep state” federal officials tried to overthrow the former president.
Patel has called for “anti-democratic” public servants in law enforcement and intelligence agencies to be replaced with “patriots” who work for the American people. In his memoir, Government Gangsters, he described the current political moment as “a battle between the people and a corrupt ruling class.”
“The deep state is a cabal of unelected tyrants who believe the American people should decide who they can and cannot elect as president,” Patel wrote. It’s about choosing what the American people can and cannot know. ”
Former FBI and Justice Department officials deny these claims as politically motivated conspiracy theories. They point out that Special Counsel John Durham’s long-running investigation into the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe resulted in no criminal charges against senior officials.
Democratic lawmakers worry that Trump’s hardliners like Patel could change the makeup and mission of the nation’s most powerful federal law enforcement agency. They also claim that the purge of FBI officials deemed disloyal to President Trump is aimed at intimidating anyone who dares to investigate the president’s conduct.
Ms. Bondi was the first woman elected as Florida Attorney General and served as Florida Attorney General from 2011 to 2019.
Trump’s nomination of Patel also ignores the post-Watergate norm, which calls for a 10-year term for FBI director. The purpose of this practice is to ensure that the FBI is seen as apolitical and not serving the political interests of any particular president. Current FBI Director Christopher Wray is scheduled to complete his 10-year term in 2027.
After President Trump’s announcement, the FBI said in a statement: “Every day, FBI employees continue to work to protect the American people from a wide range of growing threats.” Director Wray continues to focus on the men and women of the FBI, the people we work with, and the people we serve. ”
I agree with President Trump’s “deep state” claims.
Patel, a former public defender and federal prosecutor, was promoted to a senior national security position in the final year of President Trump’s first term.
Patel first gained Trump’s support in 2017 as a member of the congressional staff of former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). Mr. Trump and his allies viewed the FBI’s investigation into Russian election interference and lobbying of members of the Trump campaign in 2016 as an attempt to sabotage his presidency.
Patel drafted a memo accusing the FBI of errors in how it obtained a warrant to conduct surveillance on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016.
Many of the memo’s claims were later disproved. The inspector general’s report found negligence in the FBI’s oversight during the Russia investigation, but also found no evidence that federal officials acted in a politically partisan manner.
Patel went on to serve on Trump’s White House National Security Council, briefly served as an advisor 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. Ta.
In addition to proposing that Patel serve as FBI director during the final months of his term, President Trump also proposed that Patel serve as deputy director of the CIA. CIA Director Gina Haspel, a career intelligence officer at the time, threatened to resign if Patel took over.
Former officials say Patel and other Trump supporters suspect the intelligence community is hiding information that could shed further light on bureaucratic machinations supporting President Trump and Joe Biden. Ta.
“It was a pretty conspiratorial environment at the time,” said Marc Short, then-Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff.
Patel echoed President Trump’s calls to label journalists as traitors and to “wipe out” federal officials accused of dishonesty. In an interview with Trump’s longtime ally Steve Bannon last year, Patel vowed to pursue “co-conspirators” who she says abused their positions in the government.
“One of the things we learned in the first go-around of the Trump administration is that we have to hire patriots from the top to the bottom,” Patel told Bannon.
“And one of the things we will do that they will never do is we go to court according to the facts and the law,” he said. Politics. ”
“We’re going to go after co-conspirators, not just in government, but in the media. And yes, we’re going to go after people in the media who lied about the American people who helped Joe Biden rig the presidential election,” Patel said. spoke. “Whether it’s criminal or civil, we’re going to resolve it. But yes, I would like to caution everyone.”
“The Wizard” who protects “King Donald”
Mr. Patel joined Mr. Trump on the 2024 campaign and has been promoting a memoir, a film adaptation of the memoir, and a series of children’s books featuring him as the “magician” who protects “King Donald.”
He has promoted his charity, the Kash Foundation, as a way to help the needy and fund legal defense for whistleblowers and others.
The foundation’s income rose to $1.3 million last year, much of it from donations, compared to $182,000 in 2022, according to its 2023 tax return. The foundation recorded $674,000 in expenses, of which approximately $425,000 was spent on advertising and marketing.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP (via Getty Images) Kash Patel speaks at President-elect Donald Trump’s Turning Point Action United for Change campaign in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 24, 2024. .
Patel also appears on Truth Social, which sells Warrior Essentials, an anti-vaccination diet supplement that is said to “reverse” the effects of coronavirus vaccines.
In his memoir, Patel recalled that after graduating from law school, he dreamed of working at a law firm and earning an “exorbitant salary,” but “no one would hire me.” I am doing it. Instead, he became a public defender in Miami.
Patel claimed that during his time as a Justice Department prosecutor, he was the “lead prosecutor” in a federal case against a Libyan man accused of participating in a deadly attack on a U.S. military facility in Benghazi in 2012.
“I was the lead prosecutor in Benghazi,” Patel said in an interview on a YouTube channel hosted by former Navy SEAL Sean Ryan.
But Patel was not listed as a lead prosecutor or a member of the defense team in a Justice Department announcement at the time.
Federal Judge Lynn Hughes dressed Patel and removed him from the chamber during a 2016 hearing in Houston in a case involving Palestinian refugees who had pleaded guilty to supporting ISIS, according to court records.
The judge said Mr Patel’s presence was unnecessary and repeatedly questioned why he had come all the way from Central Asia to attend the trial. He then scolded Patel for not dressing appropriately.
“Act like a lawyer,” the judge said.
Patel wrote in his memoirs that he rushed back from Tajikistan but didn’t have a suit to wear to court. He chose not to talk back to the judge, “who taught it for me,” to avoid damaging the government’s terrorism case, he wrote.
Former federal law enforcement officials who served in Trump’s first term say the nominations of Patel and Gates reflect Trump’s disdain for the Justice Department and FBI and efforts by both agencies to avoid being used to settle political scores. He said it shows.
“He’s just going to be rough with them,” predicted one former official, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from President Trump. “He blames the Department of Justice and the FBI for these appointments. He intends to carry out his will without regard to our norms.”
Vaughn Hillyard contributed.
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