Trump says he will fire FBI Director Christopher Wray and replace him with his longtime ally Kash Patel

President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday that he plans to fire FBI Director Christopher Wray and replace him with his longtime ally Kash Patel.

The appointment must be approved by the Senate.

Patel has been a staunch supporter of Trump for years and served in various roles during his first term. He loudly defended the January 6 rioters.

Patel said he would target journalists, former senior FBI and Justice Department officials and turn the FBI into a deep state museum on day one.

“This FBI will end America’s growing crime epidemic, dismantle migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the border,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

The FBI and Patel did not immediately comment on Trump’s announcement. Trump cannot make any personnel changes at the FBI until he is sworn in.

Wray was appointed in 2017 after firing Director James Comey, less than four years into his 10-year term. Trump claimed Comey “didn’t do a good job.”

Patel, 44, grew up in Long Island and earned a law degree from Pace University Law School. He initially worked as a public defender in Miami for nine years before moving to Washington DC in 2013 to work in the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

Patel left the Justice Department in 2017, saying he was dissatisfied with the agency, particularly its handling of the Benghazi case.

He then led the “Russia Gate” investigation for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, with a promise from Nunes that after the investigation he would help Patel get a job with the National Security Council in the White House.

A self-described “lead investigator of the Russia Gate hoax,” Patel authored the so-called “Nunes memo,” in which he claimed the FBI had wrongly eavesdropped on former Trump adviser Carter Page.

A major report from the Justice Department’s inspector general released in late 2019 found that the FBI was not affected by political bias in launching the investigation – even though it outlined “serious performance deficiencies” by agents in verifying information from sources and requested surveillance warrants against Page.

In February 2019, Patel became deputy assistant to the president and “senior director for counterterrorism” on the White House National Security Council.

In February 2020, Patel assumed a “temporary duty assignment” as deputy to the newly installed acting Director of National Intelligence. In November of this year, after Trump lost the election, Patel was named Defense Department chief of staff, despite major critics pointing out that he was unqualified for the role.

After Trump left the White House, Patel held a number of jobs, including hosting shows on far-right media outlets.

Two months ago, Patel said in a podcast that anyone involved in Russiagate should have their security clearance revoked.

According to Patel, there is a “vast” list of such government officials, from the FBI and the Justice Department to the CIA and the US military.

“They all still have their permits,” including those who left the government to work in the private sector, so “everyone” should lose their permits, Patel said.

Patel said he personally “recommended” to Trump that the new administration also revoke all security clearances still held by 51 former intelligence officials, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan. In October 2020, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, he signed a letter denouncing the public release of emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop as part of a “Russian information operation.” rejected.

Patel has also come to the defense of the January 6 rioters.

He has raised money for the January 6 defendants and their families, including by sponsoring the “J6 Prison Choir,” in which the January 6 defendants still in prison perform, and by co-producing their benefit song “Justice for All,” which Trump played at some of his campaign rallies. And Patel once said that January 6th was “a free speech movement.”

Patel was involved in the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

After it was revealed that the National Archives had found some classified documents in boxes previously stored at Mar-a-Lago, Patel called the news “disinformation” and emphasized that he was there when Trump “anticipated his departure from the administration.” declassified collections of materials that he thought had lost their secrecy.” The American public should have the right to read themselves.”

Four weeks later, Trump appointed Patel as one of his official representatives at the National Archives, and Patel promised to “march down there,” identify “every single document that has been blocked from being released at the National Archives, and we will begin providing that information out.” “

Two months later, Patel’s alleged Trump clearance documents were included in the FBI’s affidavit outlining why the FBI believed a comprehensive search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was justified. And Patel was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury investigating the case, but he initially refused to answer key questions.

He later returned to the grand jury and answered those questions only after he was granted temporary immunity. He has described the entire investigation as unlawful abuses by a politically corrupt Justice Department.