Kash Patel will serve as FBI director, Trump announces

President-elect Donald Trump has named his longtime ally Kashyap “Kash” Patel, who has been a frequent and harsh critic of the FBI, to be the FBI’s next director in the new administration.

Patel, 44, is a lawyer with experience in national security, intelligence and counterterrorism who helped expose the bureau’s surveillance of the Trump campaign and his first term. He was a member of Trump’s transition team and advised the administration on other appointments.

Trump announced Patel’s appointment in a Truth Social post on Saturday.

“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’s statement said. “He played a critical role in exposing the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax and stood as a champion of truth, accountability and the Constitution.”

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Former Chief of Staff to U.S. Secretary of Defense Kash Patel speaks during a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump at the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, Arizona, Oct. 13. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

Current FBI Director Christopher Wray is currently serving a ten-year term that began in 2017. Wray must either be fired or resign to allow Patel to take over the position.

Patel is widely seen as a staunch Trump loyalist who will implement Trump’s desired reforms within the agency. During the first Trump administration, he served as senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council from 2020 to 2021 and later served as chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.

Patel was a harsh critic of bureaucracy and corruption. In 2023, Patel published a book titled “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” which, according to the book’s description, delved into “the key players and tactics within the permanent government bureaucracy.”

Media outlets called Patel a “highly controversial choice,” with MSNBC’s Morning Joe calling him a “personification of MAGA anger at the Justice Department and the FBI.”

“I would close the FBI Hoover Building the first day and reopen it the next day as a museum of the Deep State,” Patel said in an interview with “The Shawn Ryan Show.”

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Trump named Patel to head the FBI in the new administration. (Getty Images)

The lawyer began his career as a public defender in Miami-Dade County, Florida, after attending the University of Richmond and earning a law degree from Pace University in New York and a certificate in international law from University College London School of Law.

In 2014, Patel became a federal prosecutor in the Justice Department’s National Security Division, where he led prosecutions of members of Al-Qaeda, ISIS and other terrorist groups. He also served as the DOJ liaison officer to the Joint Special Operations Command.

In 2017, he was tapped by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., to serve as senior counsel and national security adviser on counterterrorism for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In that role, he helped oversee the House investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, although critics accused Patel of bias during the investigation.

The position of FBI director requires Senate confirmation. In an X post Saturday evening, Trump ally Mike Davis called Patel “undoubtedly qualified.”

“I served as senior nominations advisor to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley – the position responsible for confirming the FBI director,” Davis wrote. “Kash Patel will win Senate confirmation. He will bring much-needed reform to a broken, corrupt FBI.”

Trump’s statement said Patel would work with Pam Bondi, the candidate for attorney general, on reforming the FBI.

Former Department of Defense Chief of Staff Kash Patel greets the crowd during a campaign rally at Minden-Tahoe Airport on October 8, 2022 in Minden, Nevada. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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“This FBI will end America’s growing crime epidemic, dismantle migrant criminal gangs, and end the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the border,” Trump concluded in his post. “Kash will work under our great Attorney General Pam Bondi to restore loyalty, bravery and integrity to the FBI.”

The FBI issued a statement following Trump’s announcement.

“Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing number of threats,” the statement said. “Director Wray’s focus remains on the men and women of the FBI, the people we work with, and the people we do the work for.”