CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday intends to nominate Kash Patel to head the FBI after taking office, in an unusual announcement that he will move to replace current director Christopher Wray before his term ends. said.
“I am proud to announce that Kashyap “Kash” Patel will be the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “I have spent my career exposing, defending justice, and protecting the American people,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday night.
“Mr. Kash will work under our great Attorney General Pam Bondi to restore loyalty, courage, and integrity to the FBI,” Trump added.
Mr. Wray has three years left on his 10-year term, and would have to resign or be fired to create a vacancy. Trump nominated Wray in 2017 after firing James Comey, but his attitude toward Wray began to deteriorate even before he left office in 2021. Trump’s view of the FBI has only worsened since the August 2022 raid of his Mar-a-Lago resort and his subsequent indictment. Suspected of keeping confidential documents.
“Every day, FBI employees continue to work to protect the American people from an ever-growing array of threats,” the bureau said in a statement to CNN. “Director Wray remains focused on the men and women of the FBI, the people we work with, and the people we serve.”
President Trump’s interest in Patel stems from his desire to fill top law enforcement and intelligence positions with allies who are willing to not only inoculate the president against future investigations, but also carry out specific investigative requests. It shows the impulse of
Even among Trump supporters, Patel is a controversial figure, widely seen as a relentless self-promoter whose value to the president-elect derives primarily from their shared disdain for the so-called deep state. There is.
Patel rose to prominence within Trump’s orbit in 2018 when she served as an aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, then the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. Patel played a key role in Nunes’ efforts to discredit the FBI’s Russia investigation into the Trump campaign, including a controversial classified memo alleging the FBI’s abuse of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against the Trump campaign. I accomplished it.
Patel was appointed to the National Security Council under Trump in 2019 and later became chief of staff to the acting defense secretary at the end of Trump’s first term.
After the 2020 election, Patel was mentioned as a possible replacement when President Trump considered firing then-CIA Director Gina Haspel as she sought more information about the Russia investigation.
Although that never happened, Patel remains an integral part of Trump’s orbit, although her closeness with the president-elect has waxed and waned.
According to sources, differing opinions about Mr. Patel have surfaced among those close to Mr. Trump during the transition process, since he was removed from the CIA director’s job, which he had actively lobbied for.
Sources familiar with Trump’s transition process have previously expressed deep concerns about Patel’s possible appointment as FBI director, saying she is concerned about investigating the president’s political rivals, declassifying classified information, and pursuing her career. He will have tremendous power to purge public servants. .
“Mr. Kash is a formidable figure within the bureau,” a person familiar with internal deliberations over the FBI director’s role previously told CNN.
The FBI director’s term is 10 years, in part to protect the bureau’s leadership from political pressure. The FBI director will serve a 10-year term as a result of post-Watergate legislation passed in response to J. Edgar Hoover’s controversial 48-year leadership of the bureau.
This norm-breaking is nothing new for President Trump, who fired Comey shortly after taking office in 2017. Trump fired Comey, who was leading the FBI during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, after more than three years in the role. He was appointed in May 2017.
President Trump announced Saturday night that he has selected Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, Florida, to head the next Drug Enforcement Administration.
This story has been updated with additional information.
