President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday that he would select Kash Patel, a 44-year-old loyalist with little experience in federal law enforcement, as FBI director.

“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 in a post to Truth Social. He believes Patel will “restore loyalty, bravery, and integrity to the FBI.”

Patel, who must be confirmed by the Senate to serve as FBI director, is known as the ultimate Trump loyalist who has spread unfounded “deep state” conspiracy theories and called for a purge of perceived Trump enemies within the FBI.

His nomination is likely to renew pressure on Senate Republicans who rejected Trump’s nomination of Matt Gaetz, an avid Trump supporter who has been under criminal investigation for sex trafficking, as attorney general.

“This is ridiculous. He is arguably the most unqualified person ever nominated for a senior position in federal law enforcement,” said a former senior law enforcement official who has come into contact with Patel. “I don’t know what significant achievements he has made at the Justice Department. He is not popular as a prosecutor.”

Patel has promoted the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” by Trump and the unfounded conspiracy theory that federal bureaucrats in the “deep state” are trying to overthrow the former president.

Without citing any specific evidence, Patel called for replacing “anti-democratic” civil servants in law enforcement and intelligence agencies with “patriots” who would serve the American people. In his memoir, “Government Gangsters,” he described the current political moment as a “struggle between the people and the corrupt ruling class.”

Patel wrote: “The Deep State is a cabal of unelected tyrants who believe they should decide who Americans can and cannot elect as president. They believe they can decide what the president can and cannot do, and believe they have the right to choose what the American people can and cannot know.”

Former FBI and Justice Department officials and Democratic lawmakers worry that hard-line Trump activists like Patel could reshape the makeup and mission of the nation’s most powerful federal law enforcement agency.

Trump’s nomination of Patel also violates the post-Watergate convention that FBI directors should serve for ten years. The practice is intended to ensure that the FBI is seen as apolitical and does not serve the president’s political interests. Current FBI Director Christopher Wray was scheduled to complete his ten-year term in 2027.

“Every day, the FBI’s workforce continues to work hard to protect Americans from growing threats,” the group said in a statement. “Director Wray’s focus remains on the FBI’s workforce, those we work with, and those we work for.”

A former public defender, Patel rose through increasingly senior national security posts in the final year of Trump’s first term and won Trump’s favor as a congressional staffer during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

He drafted a memo accusing the FBI of making mistakes in obtaining warrants to conduct surveillance on former Trump campaign volunteers.

Many of the assertions in the memo were later overturned. The inspector general report noted problems with FBI surveillance during the Russia investigation, but also found no evidence of political partisanship by federal authorities.

Patel later served on Trump’s White House National Security Council, briefly as an adviser to the acting director of national intelligence, and as chief of staff to Defense Secretary Chris Miller at the end of Trump’s first term.

In the final months of Trump’s presidency, the former president floated Patel as deputy CIA director or taking over the FBI. Then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, a career intelligence officer, threatened to resign if Patel took the job, and then-Attorney General William Barr strongly opposed it. Trump eventually abandoned his plan.

Barr later wrote in his memoir: “Patel has almost no experience that qualifies him for the top job in the world’s most distinguished law enforcement agency.”

Former officials say Patel and some other Trump loyalists suspected that the intelligence community was hiding information that could further reveal a bureaucratic conspiracy against Trump and in favor of Joe Biden.

“The atmosphere was quite conspiratorial,” said Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to then-Vice President Mike Pence.

Echoing Trump’s “deep state” rhetoric

Patel echoed Trump’s rhetoric, calling journalists traitors and calling for a “purge” of allegedly disloyal federal civil servants. Last year, in an interview with longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon, Patel vowed to go after “conspirators” who he claimed were abusing their government positions.

“One thing we learned in the first Trump administration is that we have to push patriots all over the United States from top to bottom,” Patel told Bannon.

“One thing we will do that they will never do is we will follow the facts and the law through the courts to correct those judges and lawyers who prosecute these cases for political purposes and publish them as legal battles,” he said.

“We will go out and find the conspirators, not only the government, but also the media – yes, we will go after those who lied in the media and accused American citizens of helping Joe Biden rig the presidential election. Whether it’s criminal or civil, we will figure it out – but yes, we will warn all of you,” Patel said.

Trump and his allies first began referring to the “deep state” shortly after the 2016 election, believing that the investigation into Russian interference in the election – and its contacts with the Trump campaign – was an attempt to undermine his presidency.

‘Wizard’ defends ‘King Donald’

Patel joined Trump on the 2024 campaign trail and has promoted Trump’s memoir, a movie based on it and a series of children’s books in which he stars as a “wizard” defending “King Donald.”

He touted his charity, the Cash Foundation, as a way to help those in need and fund legal defense for whistleblowers and others. But the foundation has released few details about its finances.

The foundation’s revenue rose to $1.3 million last year, compared with $182,000 in 2022, according to its 2023 tax return, with most of the money coming from donations. The foundation spent $674,000, of which about $425,000 was spent on advertising and marketing.

He also hawked the “Warrior Essentials” anti-vaccine dietary supplement on “Truth Social,” which is said to “reverse” the effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Patel recounts in his memoir how after law school he dreamed of getting a job at a law firm with a “giant salary,” but “no one wanted to hire me.” Instead, he became a public defender in Miami.

After his time as a public defender, Patel worked at the Justice Department, where he claimed to be the “lead prosecutor” in a federal case against a Libyan accused of involvement in the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi.

“I was the lead judicial lead prosecutor in the Benghazi case,” Patel said in an interview on a YouTube channel hosted by former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan.

But Patel was not listed as the lead prosecutor or a member of the legal team in the Justice Department’s announcement at the time.

In 2016, federal Judge Lynn Hughes reprimanded Patel and kicked him out of a Houston case involving a Palestinian refugee who admitted to supporting ISIS, according to court records.

The judge repeatedly questioned Patel about why he had flown all the way from Central Asia to attend the trial, saying his presence was unnecessary. He also scolded Patel for his inappropriate attire.

“Act like a lawyer,” the judge said. He accused Patel of being a Washington bureaucrat who would interfere in cases that didn’t need him. “You’re just another unnecessary Washington employee.”

Patel wrote in his memoir that he rushed back from Tajikistan without a suit to attend the court, and that he chose not to talk back to the judge who “beared a grudge against me” so as not to damage the government’s terrorism case.

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