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Kash Patel

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Kash Patel
Patel in 2022
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Presumptive nominee
Assuming office
TBD[a]
PresidentDonald Trump (elect)
SucceedingChristopher A. Wray
Personal details
Born
Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel

(1980-02-25) February 25, 1980 (age 44)
Garden City, New York, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Education

Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel (born February 25, 1980) is an American lawyer and former federal prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice. Previously, he served as Chief of Staff to the acting U.S. secretary of defense Christopher C. Miller, and senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, both during the first presidency of Donald Trump. In November 2024, President-elect Trump nominated Patel to succeed Christopher A. Wray as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A member of the Republican Party, Patel was appointed senior counsel on counterterrorism for the House Select Committee on Intelligence in 2017, as well as senior director of the Counterterrorism Directorate at the U.S. National Security Council in 2019. He worked as a senior aide to Congressman Devin Nunes during the latter's tenure as chair of the House Intelligence Committee. While working with Nunes, Patel played a key role in helping Republicans in the investigations into Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Patel was instrumental in drafting the Nunes memo in 2018, which alleged errors in the FBI application for a surveillance warrant of Trump's 2016 campaign aide.[1] Patel also believes in the existence of a deep state in the United States and has promoted various conspiracy theories.[b]

Early life and education

Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel[7][8] was born on February 25, 1980[9] in Garden City, New York, to Indian Gujarati immigrant parents.[10] [11] His parents first moved to Canada in the early 1970s from East Africa, where they were facing ethnic repression.[10][4] Subsequently, they moved to the United States and his father started working as a financial officer at an aviation firm.[12] Patel was raised Hindu.[12][13] Patel graduated from Garden City High School on Long Island.

After high school, Patel earned a Bachelor of Arts in history and criminal justice from the University of Richmond in 2002.[14] He completed his Juris Doctor at Pace University School of Law, New York in 2005, and obtained a certificate in international law from University College London, England in 2004.[15][16][11][17]

Career

Early career

After law school, Patel moved to Florida and spent eight years as a public defender, first in the Miami-Dade County public defender's office and later as a federal public defender.[17][18] As a public defender he represented clients charged with felonies including international drug trafficking, murder, firearms violations, and bulk cash smuggling.[18][19]

In 2014, Patel was hired as a trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice National Security Division, where he simultaneously served as a legal liaison to the Joint Special Operations Command.[17][19] In 2017, Patel was appointed senior counsel on counterterrorism at the House Intelligence Committee.[17][15][c]

Aide to Devin Nunes

In April 2017, Patel became the senior committee aide to House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes.[21][22] Patel played a prominent role in the Republican opposition to the investigations into Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election.[22][23]

According to The New York Times, Patel was the primary author of the 2018 Nunes memo, alleging FBI misconduct in its application for a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) for electronic surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.[1] That claim was disputed by the committee's staff director, by a spokesman for Nunes, and by unattributed sources interviewed by India Abroad. Patel did not offer a public comment on the matter.[20] The New York Times opined that the memo was widely dismissed as "biased" containing "cherry-picked facts", but "it galvanized President Trump's allies and made Mr. Patel a hero among them".[24]

After Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in January 2019,[25] Patel worked for about a month as a senior counsel at the House Reform and Oversight Committee.[26]

Executive branch

Positions

Patel was hired in February 2019 as a staffer for President Donald Trump's National Security Council (NSC), working in the International Organizations and Alliances directorate,[27] and in July 2019 became Senior Director of the Counterterrorism Directorate,[28] a new position created for him.[27] According to The Wall Street Journal, Patel led a secret mission to Damascus in early 2020 to negotiate the release of Majd Kamalmaz and journalist Austin Tice, both of whom were being held by the Syrian government.[17][29]

In February 2020, Patel moved to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI),[30] becoming a principal deputy[19][31] to Acting Director Richard Grenell. Later that month, Patel was part of Trump's entourage during the state visit of the United States to the Republic of India and was noted in press reports as one of two Americans of Indian descent to accompany the president.[32][33][d]

Trump–Ukraine scandal

Within months of Patel's appointment to the NSC, it was suspected that Patel had assumed the role of an additional independent back channel for the President, which was seen as potentially detrimental to American policy in Ukraine. It was noticed that during NSC meetings Patel took few notes and was underqualified for his portfolio, the United Nations.[24][27]

Red flags were raised when Trump referred to Patel as "one of his top Ukraine policy specialists" and as such wished "to discuss related documents with him". Patel's actual assignment was counter-terrorism issues, rather than Ukraine. He was thought to have operated independently of Rudy Giuliani's irregular, informal channel. Impeachment inquiry witnesses were asked what they knew about Patel. Fiona Hill told investigators that it seems "Patel was improperly becoming involved in Ukraine policy and was sending information to Mr. Trump." Gordon Sondland and Kent testified they did not come across Patel in the course of their work.[24][failed verification]

In an October 2019 story, Politico, citing an anonymous source it reported had formerly worked at the White House, wrote that Patel had "unique access" to Trump and had provided "out of scope" advice to him on the United States' Ukraine policy.[27][34] Patel denied the claims and, the following month, sued Politico for defamation, seeking $25 million in damages.[34][e][needs update]

On December 3, 2019, the House Intelligence Committee's report included phone records, acquired via subpoenas to AT&T and/or Verizon, including a 25-minute phone call between Patel and Giuliani on May 10, 2019.[36]: 58  The call occurred after Giuliani and Patel attempted to call each other for several hours, and less than an hour after a call between Giuliani and Kurt Volker.[36]: 58  Five minutes after the 25-minute call between Giuliani and Patel, an unidentified phone number called Giuliani for over 17 minutes, after which Giuliani called his associate Lev Parnas for approximately 12 minutes.[36]: 58  In a statement to CBS News on December 4, 2019, Patel denied being part of Giuliani's Ukraine back-channel, saying he was "never a back channel to President Trump on Ukraine matters, at all, ever",[37] and that his call with Giuliani was "personal".[38]

Proposed move to lead either FBI or CIA

Trump proposed Patel as a potential leader for either the FBI or CIA in early 2021 following the 2020 United States presidential election. Trump had considered installing Patel as either CIA deputy director or acting director, which would have required firing the existing director Gina Haspel.[39] This proposal faced significant resistance, including from Attorney General William Barr, who wrote in his memoir that Patel would become FBI director only "over his dead body".[40][41][39]

U.S. Department of Defense

Patel traveling with Acting Secretary Miller on January 14, 2021

In November 2020, Trump named Patel chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller, a move that followed Trump's firing of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.[42] Patel reportedly argued that Esper was disloyal to Trump by refusing to deploy military troops to Washington to quell the George Floyd protests.[22] Patel remained at the Pentagon for three months.[14]

Foreign Policy magazine connected the move to Trump's "refusal to accept the election results".[43] Based on interviews with defense experts, Alex Ward of Vox suggested that Patel's appointment was "not sinister", would "not change much", and may have served an effort to accelerate the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.[44] According to an unnamed source quoted by Vanity Fair, Miller was a "front man" during his time as Acting Secretary of Defense while Patel and Cohen-Watnick were "calling the shots" at the Department of Defense.[41] Another source told the magazine that Patel was the most influential person in the U.S. government on matters of national security.[41]

After the November 2020 election, Patel reportedly blocked some Department of Defense officials from helping the Biden administration transition, according to NBC.[21] As chief of staff, Patel was designated to lead the Department of Defense's coordination with Joe Biden's presidential transition, and also supported a departmental initiative to separate the National Security Agency from the U.S. Cyber Command.[23][45]

Post-government activities (2020–2024)

Patel has widely been described by news organizations as a "Trump loyalist".[23][21][46] Since 2020, Patel has invoked his association with Donald Trump into "enterprises he promotes under the logotype 'K$H'".[14] In April 2022, Patel became a member of the board of directors for the Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of the Truth Social media platform.[47] Patel is the author of a children's picture book, titled The Plot Against the King, that claims that the Steele dossier was used as evidence to initiate the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Illustrated by Laura Vincent, the book was published in May 2022 by Brave Books.[48][49]

In 2023, Patel published the book Government Gangsters, a partial memoir that criticizes the "deep state".[50] In his book Government Gangsters, Patel wrote a list of 60 people who, he believed, were members of the "Deep State", which included:[51][52] Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Merrick Garland, Bill Barr, Robert Mueller, James Comey, Mark Esper, and Robert Hur, among others.

On June 19, 2022, Trump sent a letter to the National Archives naming Patel and John Solomon as "representatives for access to Presidential records of my administration".[53] In 2022, Patel created Fight With Kash, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity, to raise donations for "helping other people" in need, though more specifically to bring "America First patriots" together and "helping fight the Deep State". Patel said he "funded whistleblowers campaigns", which Democrats on the Republican-controlled House Judiciary weaponization subcommittee said included former FBI employees the FBI claimed endorse "an alarming series of conspiracy theories related to the January 6 Capitol attack ... and the validity of the 2020 election". During a December 2023 appearance on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast, Patel concurred with Bannon's assertions that Donald Trump is "dead serious" about his intent to seek revenge against his political enemies should he be elected in 2024. Patel stated:

"We will go out and find the conspirators — not just in government, but in the media ... we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections ... We're going to come after you. Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice, and Steve, this is why they hate us. This is why we're tyrannical. This is why we're dictators ... Because we're actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have."[54]

Patel's remarks came during concurrent reporting in The New York Times about "a series of plans by Mr. Trump and his allies that would upend core elements of American governance, democracy, foreign policy and the rule of law if he regained the White House". Axios reported days later that Patel was being considered for a top national security position in a second Trump administration.[54][55][56]

Nomination as Director of the FBI

In November 2024, Trump nominated Patel as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to succeed Christopher A. Wray.[57] If confirmed, Patel would be the FBI's 9th Director and its first Indian American leader, as well as its youngest director.[58]

Trump cited Patel's role in "uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax" and his advocacy for "truth, accountability and the Constitution" in announcing the nomination.[57]

Following his nomination, Patel was targeted by Iranian hackers, who accessed some of his communications.[59]

Involvement in Trump documents investigation

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) found in 2021 that Trump had taken presidential documents with him to his home in Florida after leaving office. After Trump returned some documents, NARA found others were still missing, including some that were highly classified. NARA referred the matter to the FBI, and after requests and a subpoena to return the documents went unheeded, the FBI entered Trump's home under a search warrant to retrieve them. Patel publicly asserted that Trump had declassified broad sets of sensitive documents before leaving the White House. In October 2022, Patel was summoned to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the matter, but he declined to answer questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Patel was represented in the matter by lawyer Stanley Woodward.[60][61] The Justice Department sought unsuccessfully to persuade a federal judge to compel Patel's testimony. Justice Department prosecutors granted him limited immunity from prosecution, after which Patel testified on November 4, 2022.[61][62]

Political views

Patel is a believer of the deep state conspiracy theory.[5] In 2023, he published the book Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, which Trump praised as a "roadmap to end the Deep State's reign".[2]

Patel has also promoted several conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 vaccines, the 2020 American presidential election, and federal government employees.[2] Patel has actively promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory. On Truth Social, Patel promoted an account with the handle @Q, which distributed messages related to the conspiratorial movement. According to Media Matters, Patel has shared an image featuring a flaming Q on it and has gone on multiple Qanon shows in order to urge members to join Truth Social.[3] Patel said in 2022 that Truth Social was trying to adopt Qanon "into our overall messaging scheme to capture audiences", and that the figurehead of the Qanon movement "should get credit for all the things he has accomplished".[6][63]

Patel has signed ten copies of his children's book about "King Donald" with the Qanon motto "WWG1WGA" ("where we go one, we go all"). He has also promoted the #WWG1WGA hashtag on Truth Social.[3][64] Also on Truth Social, Patel has promoted the use of pills that, he said, reversed the effects of COVID-19 vaccines.[4][65]

Personal life

Patel resides in Washington, D.C.[18] He plays ice hockey.[19] In 2014, according to the legal website Above the Law, Patel agreed to participate in a so-called bachelor auction of "very handsome lawyers" to benefit Switchboard of Miami, a social services organization.[66] He later withdrew from the auction after noting that his Florida bar status was inactive at that time.[67] [68]

Notes

  1. ^ Appointment after Senate confirmation for this position.
  2. ^ Multiple sources have described Patel's embrace of conspiracy theories:[2][3][4][5][6]
  3. ^ According to The New York Times, Patel was the primary author of the Nunes memo, but that claim was disputed by the committee's staff director, by a spokesman for Nunes, and by unattributed sources interviewed by India Abroad.[20] Patel did not offer a public comment on the matter.[20]
  4. ^ The other was Ajit Pai.[33]
  5. ^ As of January 2021, the case was being heard in the circuit court of Henrico County, Virginia.[35]

References

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  2. ^ a b c Barber, Rachel; Bailey, Phillip M. "Who is Kash Patel? 5 things to know about Donald Trump's firebrand pick to lead the FBI". USA Today. Retrieved December 2, 2024. Patel has pushed extensive conspiracy theories about federal government employees, Trump critics, the 2020 presidential election, the COVID-19 vaccine and more.
  3. ^ a b c Corn, David (December 1, 2024). "How Kash Patel, Trump's FBI pick, embraced the unhinged QAnon movement". Mother Jones. Retrieved December 2, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c Plott Calabro, Elaina (August 26, 2024). "The Man Who Will Do Anything for Trump". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
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  6. ^ a b Suderman, Alan; Linderman, Juliet (July 9, 2024). "Kash Patel is pushing conspiracies and his brand. He's poised to help lead a Trump administration". The Associated Press. Many who worked with Patel before he joined the Trump administration said he was an ambitious if not exceptional lawyer whose quick rise and far-right tilt have left them stunned .. A trusted aide and swaggering campaign surrogate who mythologizes the former president while promoting conspiracy theories and his own brand.
  7. ^ "Who is Kash Patel, the Trump loyalist tapped to run the FBI?".
  8. ^ "Congressional Salaries of Kash Patel | LegiStorm".
  9. ^ https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/who-is-kash-patel-the-america-first-champion-chosen-by-trump-to-head-fbi-101733015205490.html
  10. ^ a b "Kash Patel's rise as FBI chief sparks joy in Gujrati diaspora". The Times of India. December 3, 2024. Retrieved December 5, 2024. Patel's parents were Indian-origin residents of East Africa.. Fleeing anti-Indian persecution in the 1970s in Uganda the family first moved to Canada and later settled in the US
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  12. ^ a b "Unravelling personal life of anti-'deep state' crusader and Trump's FBI pick". Hindustan Times. December 1, 2024. Retrieved December 5, 2024. his father immigrated to the US from Uganda in the 1970s amid Idi Amin's repressive rule
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  58. ^ "Trump picks loyalist ex-aide as FBI director". BBC. November 30, 2024. Retrieved November 30, 2024. The son of Indian immigrants, Patel is a former defence lawyer and federal prosecutor
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