FBI Nominee Has Vowed to Gut the Agency

Kash Patel is President-elect Trump's pick to lead the FBI come January, and he may now be the most controversial of the nominees standing. As a New York Times profile notes, few nominated for any federal post "have come with quite so much bravado, bombast or baggage." The 44-year-old Long Island native is a former federal prosecutor now routinely described as a fierce Trump loyalist. Some highlights from coverage:

• A threat: CNN notes that Patel has suggested decimating the agency he has been chosen to lead. In a September podcast interview, he called for FBI headquarters in DC to be razed and converted into a "museum for the deep state." The "deep state" is a big theme of Patel's, as evidenced by the title of his 2023 book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy. In it, he argues for a "comprehensive housecleaning" of the Justice Department.

• Famous memo: Patel first surfaced in the Trump orbit as the primary author of the "Nunes memo" while working as a staffer on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Rep. Devin Nunes, per the AP. The memo blasted the Justice Department's investigation into alleged ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. An impressed Trump ordered that Patel be given a job on the National Security Council.
• Barr slam: Trump in his first term even floated Patel for the post of deputy FBI director. However, Attorney General William Barr cited his lack of experience in helping lead an agency of such scope and said he would get the position "over my dead body," Barr wrote in his memoir, per CNN.
• An exaggeration? Patel worked for about three years as a terrorism prosecutor in the Justice Department, per the Times. He has often referred to himself as the "lead prosecutor" in the case against those who attacked the US embassy in Benghazi, Libya, though the newspaper says he was, in fact, a junior staff member at the time and not part of the trial team. In recent years, Patel has been a prominent defender of Trump in his various legal battles.
• Bling, books: Patel is a MAGA favorite, and he peddles socks and clothing branded with the "K$H" logo. The AP notes he has also has written children's books that praise Trump, including The Plot Against the King, which "features a thinly veiled Hillary Clinton as the villain." (Her name is "Hillary Queenton.") Patel also runs the nonprofit Kash Foundation, which he says provides financial help to the families of people charged in the Capitol riots, among others.

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