Thoughts on Kash Patel for FBI Director
A dangerous choice that the Senate must reject.
I see that Steven has already beaten me to it but I’ve got enough time invested in the post that I’m going to go ahead and keep it up.
WSJ (“Trump Picks Kash Patel as FBI Director“):
Donald Trump has chosen Kash Patel to be Federal Bureau of Investigation director, moving to force out the bureau’s current leader, Christopher Wray, before the end of his 10-year term in favor of a fierce loyalist who has promised to upend the nation’s premier law-enforcement agency.
His selection, which could face an uphill confirmation fight next year in the Senate, marks the start of what the president-elect hopes will be a major shake-up of an agency with which he has constantly sparred. Patel has said he would fire its senior leaders and prosecute agents he thinks abused their authority, as part of a far-ranging plan to shrink its size and power.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday evening, Trump said Patel, 44 years old, has “spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.” Trump said Patel will “bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI.”
[…]
The selection of Patel means Trump effectively is firing Wray, whom he appointed during his first term in 2017 after dismissing Wray’s predecessor, James Comey. And it signals other major changes lie ahead for the bureau. The president-elect has threatened to seek retribution against political rivals.
While Trump had long been considering Patel for top national-security roles, including at the FBI, his selection as director came as a surprise to some within the Justice Department. Trump had been also considering more-mainstream choices such as former Rep. Mike Rogers, who had worked as a special agent, and Chris Swecker, who worked in the bureau for 24 years, including in senior roles.
“The agents and lawyers who think they can hide in the shadows while abusing their positions will be put on immediate notice,” Patel wrote in his book “Government Gangsters.” Trump called it a “brilliant road map” for his second term in the White House.
The position, which requires Senate confirmation, would be a huge step in Patel’s rapid career ascension, which includes stints as a public defender, a federal prosecutor, a top House staffer and an aide in Trump’s first White House and Pentagon.
But his nomination could run into the same turbulence as some other Trump picks. Republicans will control the Senate, 53-47, next year and can afford no more than three defections for any nominee if all Democrats are opposed. Already, Trump’s initial attorney general selection, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration after it became clear he faced significant Republican opposition.
By tapping Patel, Trump would be pushing out Wray, the bureau’s restrained and circumspect director who has tried to steer the agency through years of political storms. In his place, he would put a swaggering campaign surrogate who has become one of the president-elect’s most trusted lieutenants. Trump would be doing so about three years before the end of Wray’s 10-year term. He seeks an ally willing to wield the bureau as a weapon against perceived enemies—including some within its ranks.
Republicans for years have accused the FBI of overzealously targeting conservatives, a charge Wray, a Republican who served as a top Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration, called “somewhat insane to me considering my own personal background.” But Patel has long articulated views that are outside the mainstream. Some inside the bureau—including those who have been critical of some of its decisions—have been dreading the prospect of Patel at its helm.
Patel, one of the FBI’s sharpest attackers, said in a September interview on the conservative podcaster Shawn Ryan’s show that he would “shut down the FBI Hoover building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state.” He suggested that the bureau had become too powerful and that he would strip it of its intelligence-gathering role and purge it of employees who refuse to go along with Trump’s agenda.
[…]
Trump’s allies have proposed FBI changes that include potentially giving political appointees at the Justice Department greater oversight of the bureau and its traditionally independent director, shrinking the size and power of its Washington headquarters and affording more resources instead to agents in the field. Some people in Trump’s orbit have suggested reviewing all of the FBI’s investigations and terminating those they find objectionable, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
[…]
Patel has long been known as an ardent booster of causes that Trump favors. As an aide to then-Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he played a leading role in attempting to discredit investigations of the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. Patel was a primary author of a 2018 memo, released by Nunes over the objections of the FBI, that accused federal investigators of bias against Trump and his team.
Since then, Patel has been known for pushing theories on social media that echo many of Trump’s own false claims about stolen elections and Covid vaccines.
In the final year of Trump’s first term, White House advisers floated a plan to replace Wray with another official and install Patel as the FBI’s deputy director. In his memoir, former Attorney General William Barr recalled abruptly leaving a meeting that he viewed as a setup to try to have him agree to a leadership change.
NYT (“Trump Says He Will Nominate Kash Patel to Run F.B.I.“):
President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Saturday that he wants to replace Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, with Kash Patel, a hard-line critic of the bureau who has called for shutting down the agency’s Washington headquarters, firing its leadership and bringing the nation’s law enforcement agencies “to heel.”
Mr. Trump’s planned nomination of Mr. Patel has echoes of his failed attempt to place another partisan firebrand, Matt Gaetz, atop the Justice Department as attorney general. It could run into hurdles in the Senate, which will be called on to confirm him, and is sure to send shock waves through the F.B.I., which Mr. Trump and his allies have come to view as part of a “deep state” conspiracy against him.
Mr. Patel has been closely aligned with Mr. Trump’s belief that much of the nation’s law enforcement and national security establishment needs to be purged of bias and held accountable for what they see as unjustified investigations and prosecutions of Mr. Trump and his allies.
[…]
In declaring well before being sworn into office that he wants a new director, Mr. Trump was pushing Mr. Wray to resign before he is fired.
“This is firing the F.B.I. director,” said one law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
“It is extremely dangerous to have a change in an F.B.I. director just after a change in administration,” the official said, referring to the longstanding policy of keeping the cycle for appointments of a director separate from the presidential election cycle and partisan politics.
[…]
Current and former law enforcement officials have worried that a second Trump term would feature an assault on the independence and authority of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, and for many of them, Mr. Patel’s ascension to the director’s role would confirm the worst of those fears.
Mr. Patel laid out his vision for wreaking vengeance on the F.B.I. and Justice Department in a book, “Government Gangsters,” calling for clearing out the top ranks of the bureau, which he called “a threat to the people.” He also wrote a children’s book, “The Plot Against the King,” telling through fantasy the story of the investigations into Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign’s possible ties to Russians.
He has vowed to investigate and possibly prosecute journalists once he is back in government, adding that he would “follow the facts and the law.”
“Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections — we’re going to come after you,” he said last year. “Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.”
AP (“Trump taps Kash Patel for FBI director, an ally who would aid in his effort to upend law enforcement“):
President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate Kash Patel to serve as FBI director, turning to a fierce ally to upend America’s premier law enforcement agency and rid the government of perceived “conspirators.” It’s the latest bombshell Trump has thrown at the Washington establishment and a test for how far Senate Republicans will go in confirming his nominees.
The selection is in keeping with Trump’s view that the government’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies require a radical transformation and his stated desire for retribution against supposed adversaries. It shows how Trump, still fuming over years of federal investigations that shadowed his first administration and later led to his indictment, is moving to place atop the FBI and Justice Department close allies he believes will protect rather than scrutinize him.
[…]
The decision sets up what’s likely to be an explosive confirmation battle in the Senate not long after Trump’s first pick to lead the Justice Department, Matt Gaetz, withdrew his nomination amid intense scrutiny over sex trafficking allegations. Patel is a lesser-known figure, but his nomination was still expected to cause shockwaves. He’s embraced Trump’s rhetoric about a “deep state,” called for a “comprehensive housecleaning” of government workers who are disloyal to Trump and has referred to journalists as traitors, promising to try to prosecute some reporters.
[…]
Patel, the child of Indian immigrants and a former public defender, spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration’s attention as a staffer for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The panel’s then-chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was a strong Trump ally who tasked Patel with running the committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Patel ultimately helped author what became known as the “Nunes Memo,” a four-page report that detailed how it said the Justice Department had erred in obtaining a warrant to surveil a former Trump campaign volunteer. The memo’s release faced vehement opposition from Wray and the Justice Department, who warned that it would be reckless to disclose sensitive information.
[…]
Patel parlayed that work into influential administration roles on the National Security Council and later as chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.
He continued as a loyal Trump lieutenant even after he left office, accompanying the president-elect into court during his criminal trial in New York and asserting to reporters that Trump was the victim of a “constitutional circus.”
This is an awful appointment and one that the Senate should handily reject.
I will disagree with Steven in that, in my judgment, Patel is qualified by experience for the job. He isn’t a former FBI agent and, indeed, has no experience in law enforcement. But that’s been true of several previous directors. Still, he has a criminal justice degree and a law degree. He then worked eight years as a public defender—which is actually quite a feather in his cap for this role—before moving on to the Justice Department. His experience on the House Intelligence Committee staff, as principal deputy to the acting Director of National Intelligence, and as chief of staff to the acting Secretary of Defense provides him unique insights into interagency and intergovernmental processes. Further, they constitute sufficient executive experience to believe he can manage a large organization.
Alas, his many public statements—including those in his books, which one can safely presume are not off-the-cuff— highlighted above make him unsuited by temperament for the job. The most benign of them—the accusations that its investigators are corrupt members of a Deep State—makes it impossible for him to lead the Bureau. Literally calling them “gangsters” is vile, indeed. His threats to prosecute journalists are the stuff of fascism.
Further, I agree with critics who believe firing Wray sends a dangerous signal. Even more so than the Attorney General, the FBI Director is not supposed to be a crony of the President but rather an independent actor. That’s why the post comes with a ten-year appointment. Only two Directors have ever been fired before the completion of their terms: Judge William Sessions, fired by Bill Clinton in 1993 amidst allegations of personal ethics violations (and with the stink of the Ruby Ridge and Waco fiascos on him), and James Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017 while the Bureau was investigating the Trump team’s relationship with Russia during the 2016 campaign. This case is much more like the latter than the former.
Look at that photograph at the top of this post and tell me this guy’s not a flaming lunatic.
It’s been postulated on Bluesky in some posts that Christopher Wray (another Trump appointment) will be allowed to serve out the last three years of his term. I don’t believe it personally because if that were the case Trump could have made this halfwit the Deputy Director and let him get on with his civil rights abuses.
This is the sentence that worries me the most. He wants to eliminate the FBI’s counterintelligence roles. If he has his way, nobody will be looking for spies inside the US.
Obviously, hyperbole is standard practice for him. So he will probably only shut down counterintelligence directed at Russia.
@Not the IT Dept.:
My very thought: Patel looks like a maniac.
Over qualified.
Did you know that Kash has more prosecutorial experience than 4 of the last 10 FBI Directors? He’s got more defense experience than 8 of them. Ironically, Kash is one of the most qualified directors in the last last 30 years.
What career? How is being a professional partisan gadfly credibly considered a career?
Fidelity. Bravery. Integrity. More like Brave new world doublespeak in full flower.
Four more Trump years of “piled high and deeper.
@Jake:
While having prosecutorial and defense experience is always useful, it isn’t the only thing necessary to be an FBI director given that the FBI is an investigative/law enforcement body versus the core DoJ which is dedicated to the prosecution process.
All that said, Christopher Wray or any of our recent FBI Directors, didn’t have direct investigation experience–however they all had experience running (or being an assistant to the head of) the Criminal Division of the DoJ. In some cases they were direct assistants to the AG (the position that Trump has nominated Todd Blanche to). That’s actually gise significant organizational leadership experience and regular interactions with the leadership level of the FBI versus the line agent level.
Patel on the other hand, has never been anything above a line Public Defender or Prosecutor. Which means he’s got a lot of trial experience, but not the necessary administrative experience needed to lead an organization of that size.
Imagine the ‘mandate’ Trump would have if he’d actually received at least 50% of the popular vote.
To be fair, Kash Patel is the best Trump could do given that he received only 49.8% of the popular vote.
Silver Lining: he didn’t nominate Jim Jordan for the position.
@Jake: His experience at being a disingenuous amoral partisan suck-up is stellar.
Fun fact:
A Democrat has NEVER led the FBI. Ever.*
There has NEVER been a Democrat as FBI Director. All eight FBI directors, starting w/ Hoover in 1924; including Mueller & Comey & Wray, have been Republicans. For nearly 100 years!
Yet, the GOP is claiming the FBI is corrupt, and that someone like Patel needs to clean it up.
*Look it up.
@EddieInCA:
Yup, and Democratic administrations have almost always kept the Directors appointed by Republican presidents. Let’s not forget that the current Director, Christopher Wray, is a Trump appointee.
In fact, prior to Trump firing Comey in his first time, the last time an FBI director had been fired was in the Clinton administration: https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/10/politics/fbi-william-sessions-firing/index.html
And in that case, Clinton’s decision was based on an investigation and recommendation by the GHWB justice department in William Sessions dodgy financial dealings. So it was actually a bipartisan decision in many ways.
@al Ameda:
Trump’s first pick for the FBI head was Missouri AG Andrew Bailey. Apparently Trump liked his looks, but he didn’t have the necessary presence.
@Jake:
Also, let’s look at actual reportage into his “experience”
I mean, if you really want to go to the mat on how “experienced he is” versus previous Directors at least we can deal with the actual facts.
Patel’s courtroom experience definitely qualifies him to be a lead prosecutor or defender. Maybe even leading a smaller US federal prosecutor district office. But leading a federal department, let alone a major organization with 24,000 employees? Not so much.
@Jake:
Just because the guy got political appointments does not mean he’s acquired meaningful experience and acumen. In fact, likely not. His “career” is largely as a Trump “go-fer.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/us/politics/kash-patel-ukraine.html)
(https://thehill.com/homenews/4344065-bannon-patel-trump-revenge-on-media/)
Disqualified on the basis of temperament and lack of ethical restraint.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/30/us/politics/trump-replace-christopher-wray.html)
Given Patel’s “retribution intoxication” Barr may have predicted his own end.
@Not the IT Dept.: And that would have been the very best shot from a professional shoot.
https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2024/kash-patel-is-pushing-conspiracies-and-his-brand-hes-poised-to-help-lead-a-trump-administration/
@Gromitt Gunn:
My first thought was, “you can blink, sir” said in a joking way to my subject. Failing that, shooting 3-5 fps, I can usually get at least one shot mid-blink. And with modern cameras, I don’t have to wait for Kodak to return my film to know I’ve got a keeper.
ETA although it does vaguely resemble a checkpoint mug shot, eh?
@Gromitt Gunn:
My first thought was, “you can blink, sir” said in a joking way to my subject. Failing that, shooting 3-5 fps, I can usually get at least one shot mid-blink. And with modern cameras, I don’t have to wait for Kodak to return my film to know I’ve got a keeper.
ETA although it does vaguely resemble a checkpoint mug shot, eh?
@Matt Bernius:
An now he wants to replace him because he was appointed by a moron.
Oh, wait.
@Not the IT Dept. & @Gromitt Gunn:
Unless the pro photographer was going for “flaming lunatic.” Seems Patel would be okay with that.
@Not the IT Dept.: he presumably picked this photograph out of a few chosen by the photographer, or at least approved of this one.
It has a murderous deer caught in the headlights look to it.
People claim portrait photography isn’t an art, but then something like this comes along. It’s brilliant. It’s a photograph that really captures the essence of the man.
Also, he should never be anywhere near power.
This just in. Kash Patel has withdrawn his name as a candidate for the FBI.
Trump accepted this decision “with regret” but immediately nominated God for the position. Reaction was swift. Blog site OTB noted Gods lack of experience, and his horrible track record of allowing crime, wars, pestilence and poverty. Noted one commenter: “if Trump nominated him he is by definition completely unsuitable. He’s also probably a lackey and a fascist.”
More coverage at 10.
Another underqualified DEI hire, sacrificing sanity and smarts for diversity and loyalty to rapist and fascist Trump.
We used to be a serious country.
@Jack:
Stick with dimwitted snark. Do not ever attempt to actually justify RFK Jr.. Hegsworth, Tulsi Gabbard, or even this ass-clown. You only poke your head up now because this is the closest Trump has come to anything remotely justifiable.
The thing is you know Trump’s cabinet is a clown car, and you know tariffs are a bad idea, but as with most MAGAts you care ever so much more about making the libtards cry than you do about the United States. Weak, small-minded, resentful men are not capable of caring about anything larger than themselves.
Draw a line from the men who fought at the Bulge, and men like you, Drew. It’s a steep, steep drop.
Trump hates the FBI because he’s a criminal and criminals don’t generally like law enforcement.
But this also serves Putin. The FBI runs counter-intelligence. Gabbard at DNI, a clown who wants to dismantle the FBI, qui bono? Our enemies, domestic and also foreign.
@Michael J Reynolds:
Woooo. Trenchant and biting. Feeling a glow, Mr Self Important?
You guys would be better served by honest self assessment. You got killed in an election. Your petulant brat reactions serve little purpose.
I know its hard, but honest self assessment rather than hurling invective might serve you better.
You have lost the American people.
I’m not saying that a number of policy positions from the left do not warrant discussion. But your progressive, arrogant and dismissive tone has destroyed you. Anything Trump is bad by definition just doesn’t work. Its juvenile.
Double down (and lose) or reconsider some things. Its not rocket science.
PS At core – you lost on the border. Your policy is bizarre.
@Jack:
An honest self assessment? You’re exactly right, and so I now understand that 49,84% of the voters (aka ‘mandate’) wanted a career criminal and otherwise reprehensible person, to do a ‘major remodel’ of the Federal government.
Thanks to you, I get it.
@Jack:
We lost by 1.6%. Get a grip. If we were as dishonest as you, we’d be screaming ‘stolen election’. But we’re not you. We still care about our country.
And I’m still waiting for you to justify Trump’s tariffs and his cabinet.
@Jack:
And exactly what policy is that, as you understand it, and likely misrepresent it?
Because in a fit of un-American uber-partisanship, the Republican Congress rejected the bi-partisanship border bill that their own members helped craft; rejected because the issue could be used as a political football, in the most cynical of ways.
Bizarre is the Republican idea of using the U.S military to round up 12 million undocumented persons who contibute substantially to our economy both in labor and taxes. The economic and social upheaval that would likely result is stunningly moronic. Especially when there are functional, rational solutions.
Trump did not gain “mandate” nor does he speak for a majority of Americans. A majority do not support the military involvement in deportation, and surprisingly high numbers support an approach that far more nuanced including providing the opportunity for people to remain in the US.
Your posts a just a rehash of the narrowed view, chest puffing, Trumpian triumphalism. That jacket is just a tad too small. You’re popping buttons.
Well, the good (-ish?) news is that having fired Comey, and now apparently planning on firing Wray to install…this guy, Trump is making it far, far easier and vastly more acceptable for the next President to fire Patel.
FBI Directors are, by design, supposed to be outside the bounds of this sort of spoils system appointment. By shoving that aside (again, to fire an FBI director HE APPOINTED), Trump is establishing some pretty bad precedents, but hey, why not, right?
I mean, what could possibly go wrong when a president installs a yes-man sycophant into the top law enforcement job?
People like Jack are going to point at credentials, as if that’s the only thing that matters. It isn’t, rather obviously. Temperament matters. The ability to manage a large agency matters. Having leadership skills matters. HAVING THE RESPECT OF THE PEOPLE YOU ARE LEADING MATTERS. Having the voice and using it to push back on Trump (or ANY president) when necessary? That matters too. Patel won’t, and that could be disastrous.
Whatever, you break it you buy it.
@Jack:
You sound scared, tbh.
Our witty and fun reactions to Trump’s cabinet of unqualified pedos and crackheads serve to keep MAGA incels triggered and bitter — unable to enjoy an election that saw you sneak a rapist into the White House by 1.6% while losing a seat in the House.
Of course, nobody takes seriously hypocritical lectures about how to react from the angry, snot-nosed MAGA crybabies who reacted to losing by 8 million votes with a terror attack on the Capitol. Talk about juvenile.
You know Trump’s 49.83% win coupled with Democrats picking up a seat in the House does not qualify as “being killed” or “getting destroyed” amid a global anti-incumbent shift. You know elderly felon Trump’s character defects and unqualified affirmative action picks means Republicans are on borrowed time.
Have fun hate reading our schaudenfreude for the next two years.
https://apnews.com/article/fbi-trump-kash-patel-senate-wray-confirmation-cd44a7107bb988a91c6d7cc17f836e7b
“Public trust” for the FBI means different things to people on either side of our ideological divide.
@Jen: Chickens coming home to roost for the FBI.
@Jack:
Might I suggest that you read or watch A Christmas Carol? It’s a story with a great moral.
@Jack:
Biden, and Obama before him, deported more people — and more of the worst people — than Trump.
Trump’s “let’s deport everyone” catches the people who have plausible asylum claims, or citizens family members, and those cases end up using a lot more court time. Court time becomes the limiting factor.
And border crossings are down.
I would agree that the Biden administration has done a poor job of publicizing their successes. And it isn’t gratuitously cruel.
The next Democratic administration really needs someone who is a designated cheerleader. And they need to have someone on each of the Sunday shows each week. They need to treat media as if it is as important as policy, because ultimately it is.
@Kingdaddy: Are you implying that Jack has some deficiencies in ethics or morals? And do you think he cares?
This is a tremendous pick if you are pro-American, like the rule of law and reject fascist lawfare.
@Not the IT Dept.:
And that was his official portrait on the DoD website.
I wonder if this announcement was the straw that finally broke the back of Joe Biden’s promise not to pardon his son. I mean if Trump is waging open warfare against Democrats using any agency of the state he can get his hands on, even Biden must begin to question the merits of continuing to play by norms which Trump has discarded, trampled and set on fire.
Rolling Stone reported today that “Trump and His Team Are ‘Laughing’ at Biden’s Commitment to Decorum”. Perhaps a little bit of Irish finally stirred in the president.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
No moral or ethical judgment implied. Just saying that the trajectory of Christmases past, present, and future is worth contemplating.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
No moral or ethical judgment implied. Just saying that the trajectory of Christmases past, present, and future is worth contemplating.
@Jack:
“ Blog site OTB noted Gods lack of experience”
Why are you so obsessed with OTB? Did OTB touch you in an inappropriate place?
@Scott O:
When did OTB become a Republican?
As a mostly-lurker, I have to observe that the arguments here, less than two weeks ago, about the importance of normalizing Trump are really not aging well.
@Kingdaddy: And yet,
was the reason you suggested for watching it. I don’t care one way or another; I’m just another troll here. But don’t be ashamed of having moral standards. It’s good thing.
@Scott O: Bwahahahaha! Good shot!
@Jack: This is you avoiding defending a terrible pick.
(Which is all you do–you never give a positive defense of Trump).
@Jack:
If it is so obvious that this is the right thing to do, why don’t you tell us what is so great about the Patel pick?
So, did the Republicans lose the American people in 2020? What are you even trying to say?
@Jack: Are you aware that the Biden administration deported more people in 2023 than the Trump administration did during his entire first term? I wasn’t either, but it was eye-popping.
I got that from the website of ICE, by the way.
For the record, and to repeat what I said above, the thing that alarms me about Kash Patel is not his experience or lack of it, it is his commitment to revenge, his lies, and his stated commitment to destroying the counterintelligence apparatus.
I remember a very old New Yorker cartoon of a businessman sitting at a desk reading a resume from a long haired hippie and the businessman says, “I’m sorry, but ‘Joining the Establishment to destroy it from within’ is not a valid career goal.”