President-elect Donald Trump has named longtime ally Kashyap “Kash” Patel, who has been a frequent and harsh critic of the FBI, to serve as the bureau’s next director in the new administration.
Patel, 44, is an attorney with experience in national security, intelligence and counterterrorism and helped uncover the bureau’s surveillance of the Trump campaign and first term. He has been a member of Trump’s transition team, advising the administration on other appointments.
Trump announced Patel’s appointment in a Truth Social post on Saturday.
“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’s statement read. “He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”
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The current FBI director, Christopher Wray, is currently serving a 10-year appointment which began in 2017. Wray will either need to be fired or resign in order for Patel to take the position.
Patel is widely seen as a staunch Trump loyalist who will implement Trump’s desired reforms within the agency. During the first Trump administration, he served as senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council and later as the chief of staff for acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, from 2020-2021.
Patel has been a fierce critic of bureaucracy and corruption. In 2023, Patel published a book called “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” which delved into “the major players and tactics within the permanent government bureaucracy,” according to the book’s description.
Media outlets have labeled Patel an “extremely controversial pick,” with MSNBC’s Morning Joe calling him the “personification of MAGA rage about the Justice Department and the FBI.”
“I would shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen the next day as a museum of the Deep State,” Patel said in an interview with “The Shawn Ryan Show.”
