Donald Trump tapped Kash Patel to be FBI director, nominating a loyalist to lead the chief US law enforcement agency — which the president-elect has long derided as corrupt.
Patel rose to prominence expressing outrage over the agency’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. If confirmed, Patel would replace Christopher Wray, who was chosen by Trump in his first term as president.
In an announcement on his Truth Social network, Trump called Patel “a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter” who played a “pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax.”
As the leading US law enforcement agency, the bureau has been at the center of the highest-profile investigations related to the president-elect. Trump has pledged a drastic overhaul, claiming the Federal Bureau of Investigation carried out politically motivated probes against him and his allies.
After he left the White House, FBI agents raided Trump’s Florida resort to seize classified documents, probed his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and investigated people who stormed the US Capitol in support of him.
The bureau is headquartered in Washington and has 56 field offices across the country that investigate cases from cyberattacks and white-collar crime, to murder and allegations of sexual misconduct.
“This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border,” Trump said Saturday.
Patel is also a critic of government agencies for actions that he says unfairly target Republicans.
In his book Government Gangsters — which Trump has called a “blueprint to take back the White House” — Patel endorsed calls to fire government employees who undermine the president’s agenda.
“We must identify the people in government that are crippling our constitutional republic,” Patel told the Conservative Political Action Conference in July.
In Trump’s first administration, Patel held a number of stopgap national security positions, including chief of staff to Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller in the final months of Trump’s White House term.
He also served as senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council and as a senior adviser to Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.
The FBI is part of the US Justice Department, which notified Trump’s earlier pick to be attorney general, Matt Gaetz, last year that he wouldn’t face charges following an investigation into whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl in exchange for money. The former Florida congressman has consistently denied the allegations.
Gaetz faced an uphill battle for confirmation and he withdrew from consideration on Nov. 21, saying the process was “unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”
Trump then said he would nominate former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to run the Justice Department. Bondi is an experienced conservative lawyer without the political and legal baggage that Gaetz had.
Speculation had been mounting that once inaugurated, Trump would move to fire Wray as FBI chief, if he doesn’t resign beforehand. Trump originally chose Wray to lead the bureau in 2017, at the time calling him “impeccably qualified.”
During his tenure, Wray has tried to steer the bureau away from political turbulence, including by gutting the leadership when he took over and implementing new restrictions on how analysts can search intelligence databases and obtain classified warrants.
Trump first signaled he viewed FBI leadership as an enemy under former Director James Comey, who opened an investigation in 2016 into whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in that year’s presidential election. The investigation was closed without charges. Trump fired Comey.
Under his list of “top of reforms to defeat the deep state” outlined in his book, Patel calls for the FBI headquarters to be moved out of Washington to “curb FBI leadership from engaging in political gamesmanship.” He also suggested significantly shrinking the general counsel’s office within the FBI, which he says has taken on “prosecutorial decision-making” instead of operating only as an investigatory body.
Patel also had close ties to former Republican Representative Devin Nunes, who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and helped lead opposition to the probe of Russia’s role in the 2016 election by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Patel may face some pushback from more traditional corners of the Republican Party.
Gina Haspel, who led the CIA during Trump’s first term and who had spent decades in the agency, reportedly threatened to resign in late 2020 when Trump sought to install Patel as her deputy, derailing his appointment, according to Axios.
The FBI has been a frequent target of Trump and his loyalists in recent years.
“I’d shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state,” Patel said on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast after Trump’s reelection.
DEA Leader
Trump on Saturday also said he is nominating Chad Chronister, the sheriff of Hillsborough County, Florida, to run the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“As DEA Administrator, Chad will work with our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to secure the Border, stop the flow of Fentanyl, and other Illegal Drugs, across the Southern Border, and SAVE LIVES,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Chronister has served at the sheriff’s office for 32 years, according to his biography on the department’s website.
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