Trump Nominates Conservative Kash Patel as FBI Director to Revamp the Agency
WASHINGTON — Skepticism continued Monday among some lawmakers about whether President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI is qualified for the job.
Even some Republicans are calling Kash Patel a Trump loyalist likely to carry out the president’s bidding but who would do little to improve the FBI.
Patel, 44, has said that he would “come after” Trump critics in the government and media if he is appointed as FBI director. He also said he would close the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the FBI and turn it into a museum of the “deep state” conspiracy against Trump.
His appointment requires Senate confirmation.
“We will go out and find the conspirators, not only in the government but also in the media,” Patel said in a media interview last December.
He was referring to people Trump accused of conspiring in voter fraud to rig the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden as well as persons who made various criminal allegations against him.
Patel would replace Christopher A. Wray as FBI director. Wray was appointed by Trump in 2017 but their relationship soured after the FBI declined to support all of the president-elect’s accusations against persons he said participated in a conspiracy against him.
Patel has called for firing the FBI’s leadership and bringing federal law enforcement agencies “to heel.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who is scheduled to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee when Republicans assume control of the Senate in January, said in a post on X that Patel must “prove to Congress he will reform & restore public trust in the FBI.”
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., was more harsh in a CNN interview, saying, “This is a very, very dangerous road on which Trump is putting us.”
He said that if nominees like Patel are allowed to complete their political agenda, Americans could “lose our freedom.”
Patel is the child of Indian immigrants who worked as public defender and a Justice Department prosecutor before becoming a staff member for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Trump announced the appointment on his Truth Social website.
“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,” Trump wrote.
Trump referred to the Justice Department investigation of him for possible Russian influence to help him get elected in 2016 when he wrote that Patel “played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., tried to be supportive of Trump but implied in an interview with ABC’s This Week that Patel is likely to face a tough confirmation hearing.
Rounds said he would give the president “the benefit of the doubt” but that the constitutional separation of powers with the presidency meant the senators could make their own decisions.
He said that “We have a constitutional role to play … that’s the process.”
Other Republican senators, such as Ted Cruz of Texas, said he believed Patel would be confirmed.
“Patel is a very strong nominee to take on the partisan corruption of the FBI,” Cruz told CBS’s Face the Nation.
You can reach us at [email protected] and follow us on Facebook and Twitter
