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President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate firebrand loyalist Kash Patel to serve as FBI director, an extraordinary move that would put a self-described enemy of the so-called deep state as the head of the nation’s top law enforcement agency — a role that would give Patel power to carry out Trump’s threats to go after his political opponents.
Kash Patel, 44, is a former national security official who advised the director of national intelligence and the secretary of defense during Trump’s first administration.
The announcement on Saturday signals Trump’s intention to oust current FBI Director Christopher Wray. Trump nominated Wray in 2017 to what was supposed to be a 10-year term.
Patel has called for sweeping changes at the FBI. He has condemned the bureau’s investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election.
During one interview, he said, taking aim at longtime members of the national security bureaucracy that “I’d shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum to the deep state,”
A former federal prosecutor and federal public defender, he helped House Republicans probe the FBI’s 2016 investigation into ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia while he worked as an aid to former Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. The former lawmaker then chaired the House Intelligence Committee.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday evening. “I am proud to announce that Kashyap ‘Kash’ Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,”
Even among Trump loyalists, Patel is widely viewed as a controversial figure and relentless self-promoter whose value to the president-elect largely derives from a shared disdain for established power in Washington. Putting him in charge of the FBI would require forcing out current director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Trump, before his term expires — prompting bipartisan criticism.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan cautioned Sunday that the FBI director should not be subject to the “whims” of politics, but declined to weigh in directly on Patel.
“What makes the FBI director different from most other nominees is they’re not just appointed for one term of a president, they’re appointed for enough time to last past two terms of a president, because they’re supposed to be insulated from politics,” Sullivan told CNN’s Kasie Hunt on “State of the Union.”
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