Trump says he'll fire FBI Director Christopher Wray, replace him with longtime ally Kash Patel
The appointment must be approved by the Senate.
President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday that he plans on firing FBI director Christopher Wray and replacing him with 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 his first administration under a number of roles. He has vocally defended many Jan. 6 rioters who were charged for their actions that day.
Patel has said he would target journalists, former senior FBI and Department of Justice officials and turn the FBI into a museum for the "deep state" on Day 1.
"This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border," Trump said in a Truth Social post, announcing his pick.
Patel did not immediately comment about Trump's announcement. Trump can not make personnel changes to the FBI until he is sworn in.
Wray, the current agency director, was appointed in 2017 after Trump fired Director James Comey, less than four years into his 10-year term. Trump claimed Comey "wasn't doing a good job."
In a statement to ABC News, the FBI said "Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats. Director Wray's focus remains on the men and women of the FBI, the people we do the work with, and the people we do the work for."
Former public defender with experience at DOJ
Patel, 44, grew up in Long Island and earned a law degree from Pace University Law School. He first served as a public defender in Miami for nine years before moving to Washington, D.C., in 2013 to work at the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Patel left the Justice Department in 2017 claiming frustration with the agency, especially with the handling of the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Role investigating the Russia probe
He went on to lead 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 at the National Security Council in the White House.
As the self-described “lead investigator of the Russia Gate hoax,” Patel authored the so-called “Nunes memo” alleging that the FBI improperly eavesdropped on former Trump adviser Carter Page.
A major report by the Justice Department's inspector general released in late 2019 found that the FBI was not impacted by political bias when it opened the investigation -- though it outlined what it called "serious performance failures" on the part of agents as they vetted information from sources and sought surveillance warrants against Page.
In February 2019, Patel became deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism on the White House’s National Security Council.
In February 2020, Patel took on a “temporary duty assignment” as deputy to the newly installed acting director of national intelligence. That November, after Trump lost the election, Patel was named chief of staff for the Defense Department, despite some critics saying 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.
Called for 'housecleaning' of DOJ
In Patel's book, "Government Gangsters," which Trump said would serve as a "blueprint" for his next administration, Patel called for a "comprehensive housecleaning" of the Justice Department. He also promoted an eradication of "government tyranny" within the FBI by firing "the top ranks" and prosecuting "to the fullest extent of the law" anyone who "in any way abused their authority for political ends."
"[T]he FBI has become so thoroughly compromised that it will remain a threat to the people unless drastic measures are taken," Patel claimed in his book. Democrats "should be very afraid," Patel wrote.
He alleged that there were "abuses of prosecutorial discretion" by the Justice Department in declining to charge Hillary Clinton for allegedly compromising classified information through her use of a private email server, and in declining to charge President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, for what Patel describes as influence-peddling. At the same time, he argued the department indicted Trump ally Steve Bannon over his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and also charging so many of the Trump supporters who were at the Capitol that day.
On a podcast two months ago, Patel said anyone involved in "Russiagate" should be stripped of their security clearances.
According to Patel, there is a "massive" list of such government officials, from the FBI and Justice Department to the CIA and U.S. military.
"They all still have clearances," including those who left government for private sector jobs, so "everybody" should lose their clearances, Patel said.
Patel said he has personally "recommended" to Trump that the new administration also strip any security clearances still held by the 51 then-former intelligence officials. This includes former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director John Brennan, who in October 2020, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, signed onto a letter dismissing the public release of emails from Hunter Biden's laptop as part of a "Russian information operation."
Defended Jan. 6 rioters, subpoenaed to testify Trump's classified docs case
Patel has also come to the defense of Jan. 6 rioters who were charged for their actions.
He’s raised money for Jan. 6 defendants and their families, including by promoting the “J6 Prison Choir,” featuring Jan. 6 defendants still in jail, and co-producing their fundraising song “Justice for All,” which Trump played at some of his campaign rallies. And Patel once suggested Jan. 6 was “a free speech movement.”
Patel also became a part of the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
After news surfaced that the National Archives found some classified documents in boxes previously stored at Mar-a-Lago, Patel called the news “disinformation” and insisted he was there when Trump “declassified whole sets of materials in anticipation of leaving government that he thought the American public should have the right to read themselves.”
Four weeks later, Trump named Patel as one of his official representatives to the National Archives, and Patel promised to “march down there" and “identify every single document that they blocked being declassified at the National Archives, and we are going to start putting that information out.”
Two months later, Patel’s claimed Trump declassifying documents were included in the FBI’s affidavit laying out why the FBI believed a broad search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was warranted. And Patel was subpoenaed to testify to the grand jury investigating the matter, but at first he refused to answer key questions.
He later returned to the grand jury and answered those questions only after being granted limited-use immunity. He has blasted the entire probe as unlawful overreach by a politically corrupted Justice Department.