WASHINGTON: Republican President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday (Dec 1) said he wanted former National Security official and firebrand loyalist Kash Patel to lead the FBI, signalling an intent to drive out the bureau’s current director, Christopher Wray.
Patel, who during Trump’s first term advised both the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense, has previously called for stripping the FBI of its intelligence-gathering role and purging its ranks of any employee who refuses to support Trump’s agenda.
“The biggest problem the FBI has had has come out of its intel shops. I’d break that component out of it. 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 in a September interview on the conservative Shawn Ryan Show.
“And I’d take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops. You’re cops. Go be cops.”
With the nomination of Patel, Trump is signalling that he is preparing to carry out his threat to oust Wray, a Republican first appointed by Trump, whose 10-year term at the FBI does not expire until 2027.
FBI directors by law are appointed to 10-year terms, as a means of insulating the bureau from politics.
Wray, whom Trump tapped after firing James Comey in 2017 for investigating his 2016 campaign, has been a frequent target of Trump’s supporters’ ire.
During Wray’s tenure, the FBI carried out a court-approved search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate to look for classified documents and he has also faced criticism for his oversight role of a directive by Attorney General Merrick Garland aimed at working to protect local school boards from violent threats and harassment.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the two federal prosecutions against Trump for his role in subverting the 2020 election and retaining classified documents, on Nov 25 asked the judges overseeing those cases to dismiss them before Trump takes office on Jan 20, citing a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
Wray had previously signalled no intention of stepping down early and was busy planning events well into his 2025 calendar, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Patel, 44, who previously worked as a federal public defender and a federal prosecutor, emerged as a controversial figure during Trump’s first term in the White House.
He was instrumental in working to lead House Republicans’ probe into the FBI’s 2016 investigation into contacts between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia during his stint as an aide to former House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes.
Later, during Trump’s first impeachment trial, ex-National Security Council official Fiona Hill told House investigators she was concerned that Patel was secretly serving as a back channel between Trump and Ukraine without authorisation.
Patel denied those allegations.
After Trump left office in January 2021, Patel was one of several people Trump designated as a representative for access to his presidential records. He was one of the few former Trump administration officials who claimed, without evidence, that Trump had declassified all of the records in question.
He was later subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in connection with the probe.
As a private citizen, Patel wrote a book called “Government Gangsters” which Trump in 2023 declared would be used as a “roadmap to end the Deep State’s Reign.”
Patel’s nomination is likely to garner pushback from Senate Democrats and possibly even some Republicans, though Patel has received public support from some high-profile Republicans such as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.