Kash Patel has called for radical changes at the FBI and was a fierce and vocal critic of the bureau's work as it investigated ties between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
Now the steadfast Trump ally has been tapped to lead the federal law enforcement agency he's pushed to overhaul.
A look at Patel, Trump's pick to replace Christopher Wray atop the FBI.
Side-by-side with Trump
Patel has for years been a loyal ally to Trump, finding common cause over their shared skepticism of government surveillance and the “deep state” — a pejorative catchall used by Trump to refer to government bureaucracy.
He was part of a small group of supporters during Trump's recent criminal trial in New York who accompanied him to the courthouse, where he told reporters that Trump was the victim of an “unconstitutional circus.”
That close bond would depart from the modern-day precedent of FBI directors looking to keep presidents at arm's length.
Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump in May 2017, memorably recoiled when Trump asked him during a private dinner to pledge his loyalty to him. And Wray, who had no personal connection to Trump when he was picked to replace Comey, broke with Trump on different hot-button issues and served as FBI director during investigations into Trump that ultimately led to his indictment.
A determination to upend the FBI
Patel has signalled through interviews and public statements a determination to upend the FBI and radically reshape its mission.
He's called for dramatically reducing its footprint and limiting its authority, as well as going after government officials who disclose information to reporters.
In an interview earlier this year on the “Shawn Ryan Show,” Patel vowed to sever the FBI's intelligence-gathering activities from the rest of its mission and said he would “shut down” the bureau's headquarters building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., and “reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state.'”
“And I'd take the seven thousand employees that work in that building and send them across America to go chase down criminals,” he added.
In a separate interview with conservative strategist Steve Bannon, Patel said he and others “will go out and find the conspirators not just in government but in the media.”
”We're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” Patel said, referring to the 2020 presidential election in which Biden, the Democratic challenger, defeated Trump. “We're going to come after you, whether it's criminally or civilly. We'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice.”
A loud critic of the FBI's Russia investigation
Patel first came to prominence in Trump's orbit as an outspoken critic of the FBI's investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
As a staffer on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired at the time by Rep Devin Nunes, a Trump loyalist, Patel helped author a four-page report that detailed what it said were errors the Justice Department made in obtaining a warrant to surveil a former Trump campaign adviser.
The document, which came to be colloquially known as the “Nunes memo,” was released over vigorous objections from Wray and Justice Department leaders.
A subsequent inspector general report identified significant problems with FBI surveillance during the Russia investigation, but also concluded that the inquiry had been opened for a legitimate purpose and found no evidence that the FBI had acted with partisan motives in conducting the probe.
Entangled in Trump's legal woes
Patel has played a role in several legal investigations into Trump. He appeared in 2022 before the Washington grand jury investigating Trump's hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after receiving immunity for his testimony. He also testified at a Colorado court hearing related to Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the violent Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Patel, who at the time of the riot was chief of staff to the then-acting defence secretary, testified that Trump had pre-emptively authorised 10,000 to 20,000 troops to deploy days before the attack. But a Colorado court later found that Patel was “not a credible witness” on the topic.
Earning some K$H
Shortly after Trump left office, Patel launched Fight with Kash, an organisation that funds defamation lawsuits and peddles a wide variety of merchandise, including branded socks and other clothing with the “K$H” logo.
Patel has also turned to publishing. He wrote a book called “Government Gangsters,” which is part memoir and part screed against the so-called deep state. Patel teamed with Bannon to release a film version. Patel has also authored children's books that lionize Trump — “The Plot Against the King” features a thinly veiled Hillary Clinton as the villain going after “King Donald” while Kash plays a wizard who thwarts her plans.
Patel has been a pitchman for a variety of products marketed to Trump supporters. One dietary supplement he's promoted claims to be a COVID vaccine “detoxification system.”
Records show that Patel has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from consulting for Trump-related entities, including a political action committee and the company that owns Truth Social.
Patel helped produce “And Justice For All,” a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner sung by a group of men incarcerated for their role in the Capitol riot.
A favourite of MAGA media
Patel's candidacy has won support from prominent Trump supporters, including people who support the president-elect's agenda at the FBI and Justice Department and the idea of using his electoral win to pursue retaliation against his perceived adversaries.
He's been a regular guest on right-wing podcasts and live-stream online shows hosted by Bannon, Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and others.
Even as Trump was said to be considering more conventional picks for the job whose confirmation prospects were seen as more certain, some conservative backers of the president-elect actively boosted Patel's candidacy and disparaged other potential selections, including Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and ex-Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee.
A Trump aide recently said on social media that Rogers was not getting the job. The FBI employs approximately 35,000 people, including special agents and support professionals such as intelligence analysts, language specialists, scientists, and IT specialists.
-AP
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