Trump’s FBI Director Pick Kash Patel Puts Cronyism Above Country

Former Trump Officials Regarded Patel As “Dangerous”

Washington D.C. – Government watchdog Accountable.US called President-elect Trump’s nomination of Kashyap “Kash” Patel for Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation the latest cabinet pick to put political loyalty above national security. While Patel joined the previous Trump administration in its last year and quickly rose through the ranks thanks to his hard-nosed style and fawning devotion to Donald Trump, other Trump officials reportedly regarded Patel as “dangerous” including General Mark Milley who feared he would break the law for Trump, and former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr who said “Over my dead body” when Trump entertained naming Patel deputy director of the FBI. Recently, Patel has threatened to prosecute journalists and political opponents of Trump. Patel has also reportedly spread baseless Qanon conspiracy theories and “earned hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from his own business dealings with Trump-related entities.”

“Kash Patel’s nomination represents the cronyism that is coming to define the second Trump administration. Loyalty to President-elect Trump is what matters above all else. Even former Trump officials have questioned Patel’s qualifications and ability to adhere to the rule of law after he has threatened to prosecute journalists and Trump’s political opponents,” said Tony Carrk, Executive Director of Accountable.US. “Patel’s financial entanglements with the President-elect also present potential conflicts of interest. He has turned his gushing idolization of Trump into a money-making opportunity, enriching himself by promoting the Trump brand alongside his own. It says it all about Donald Trump’s priorities to once again reward a devout political crony even if it means America’s national security interests come a distant second.” 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT KASH PATEL: 

• On the previous Trump Administration National Security Council, other aides questioned whether his previous experience was relevant. After he was quickly promoted to a senior director position, some officials said he was promoted unusually quickly. 
• Senior Trump officials opposed Patel’s potential roles as deputy director of the FBI or CIA. Attorney General Bill Barr said Patel would be named deputy director of the FBI over his “dead body.” After Trump tried to install Patel as deputy CIA director in an effort to oust his previous appointee, director Gina Haspel, Haspel and other CIA staff threatened to resign if Trump carried out his plan. 
• Patel allegedly misrepresented himself as a Ukraine expert to Trump in an attempt to shape US policy. He was implicated in Rudy Giuliani’s conspiracy to coerce Ukraine into opening an investigation into Trump, and officials worried that Patel may have aimed to bypass Ukraine policymakers. Despite not being in a position to contact foreign governments, Patel incorrectly assured senior officials that US forces were approved to enter Nigeria territory on a rescue mission, which could have resulted in the US accidentally invading Nigeria. 
• Previous Trump Officials Have Regarded Patel As “Dangerous” And General Mark Milley Feared That He Would Break The Law For President Trump. “Kash Patel was dangerous. On this both Trump appointees and career officials could agree. A 40-year-old lawyer with little government experience, he joined the administration in 2019 and rose rapidly. Each new title set off new alarms. When Patel was installed as chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense just after the 2020 election, Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised him not to break the law in order to keep President Donald Trump in power. “Life looks really shitty from behind bars,” Milley reportedly told Patel. (Patel denies this.) When Trump entertained naming Patel deputy director of the FBI, Attorney General Bill Barr confronted the White House chief of staff and said, “Over my dead body.” When, in the final weeks of the administration, Trump planned to name Patel deputy director of the CIA, Gina Haspel, the agency’s head, threatened to resign. Trump relented only after an intervention by Vice President Mike Pence and others.” [The Atlantic, 08/26/24] 
• • Patel Was Described As A Trusted Trump Aide And “Swaggering Campaign Surrogate Who Mythologizes The Former President” “A trusted aide and swaggering campaign surrogate who mythologizes the former president while promoting conspiracy theories and his own brand, Patel is poised to take on an influential role in the federal government if Trump wins a second term. Patel has a pedigree that sets him apart from other Trump advisers, and he frequently cites his experience as a public defender, federal prosecutor, top House staffer and national security official to lend credibility to his plan to go after the very intelligence community he could one day help oversee. There is little daylight between Patel and Trump: Patel has made it clear that he is in lockstep with the former president on most national security issues, including purging government officials deemed disloyal.” [Associated Press, 07/09/24]  
  • Patel Appears To Have An Obsessive Devotion To Donald Trump And In 2021 Published A Children’s Book About The Russia Investigation That Referred To Trump As “King Donald”. In 2021, Patel authored an illustrated children’s book about the Russia investigation in which “King Donald” is a character persecuted by “Hillary Queenton and her shifty knight.” [Axios, 12/07/23]  

• Patel Even Claimed He Would Obtain The Classified Documents From The FBI’s Mar-A-Lago Raid And Would Post Them Online.  “In June of this year, seven weeks before the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in search of classified materials, former Defense Department appointee and outspoken Trump loyalist Kash Patel vowed to retrieve classified documents from the National Archives and publish them on his website. Trump had just issued a letter instructing the National Archives to grant Patel and conservative journalist John Solomon access to nonpublic administration records, according to reporting at the time. Patel, who under Trump had been the chief of staff for the acting defense secretary, claimed in a string of interviews that Trump had declassified a trove of “Russiagate documents” in the final days of his administration. But Patel claimed Trump’s White House counsel had blocked the release of those documents, and instead had them delivered to the National Archives.”” [ABC News, 08/17/22]
  

• Patel Was Once The Protege Of Former Trump Sycophant Rep. Devin Nunes And During The Trump Administration, He Endeared Himself To Trump By Acting As A “Political Mercenary” Who Waged War On The Intelligence Community Which Alienated Some Of Trump’s Most Ardent Cabinet Officials. “Kash Patel: A protege of former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) who led efforts to discredit the Russia investigation, Patel came to be viewed as a political mercenary in Trump’s war against the intelligence community. The former Pentagon official would be considered for a top national security job in the next administration, possibly even running the CIA or NSC. Trump took a shine to Patel in his first term but was talked out of making him a deputy director of the FBI or CIA by senior officials — including former Attorney General Bill Barr, who wrote in his memoir that it would happen “over my dead body.” Former CIA director Gina Haspel threatened to resign over a plan to install Patel as her deputy in the final weeks of Trump’s presidency, when he became convinced the intelligence community possessed documents that could damage his political enemies.” [Axios, 12/07/23]  
• Patel Went On Steve Bannon’s Podcast And Said That “We’ve Got To Put In All Of Our Compatriots From Top To Bottom.” Patel told Bannon: “One thing we learned in the Trump administration the first go-round is we’ve got to put in all of our compatriots from top to bottom. And we’ve got them for law enforcement … [Defense Department], CIA, everywhere. … Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens.” To avoid a confirmation battle, Patel also might have a National Security Council role where he could do special projects for Trump — or even be national security adviser.” [Axios, 12/07/23]  
• Not Only Has Patel Talked About Stocking The Government With Trump Loyalists, He Also Has Spoken Extensively About Exacting Revenge On “Deep State” Government Officials And The Media, Saying “We Are Going To Come After You Whether It’s Criminally Or Civilly.” “For weeks on the campaign trail, former President Donald Trump has been suggesting the possibility that, if elected, he would use the office of the presidency to seek retribution against his political enemies, promising to “root out” opponents who “live like vermin” and saying he wouldn’t be a dictator “except for Day One.” Now, a key political ally who’s been touted as a possible acting attorney general under Trump is doubling down on those threats, vowing to target those he called “conspirators” among journalists and government officials during a potential second Trump administration. “We will go out and find the conspirators not just in government, but in the media,” said former Defense Department official Kash Patel during an appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. […] Patel, who served as chief of staff in the Department of Defense during the Trump administration and Trump’s counterterrorism adviser on the National Security Council, was asked by Bannon if he would be able to deliver “serious prosecution and accountability” against their political opponents during a second Trump presidency. “We’re going to come after you whether it’s criminally or civilly,” Patel said of Trump’s political foes. “We’ll figure that out.”” [ABC News, 12/06/23]       

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