Cole Welsh, Editor

Following several weeks of high-profile cabinet and personnel announcements, President-elect Donald Trump selected former federal prosecutor Kash Patel to lead America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Although the outside-of-the-box pick has been met with both praise and scrutiny, Trump’s nomination of Patel is very much in line with Trump’s promise of reforming the FBI.

Patel, 44, is an attorney and the son of Indian immigrants.

While Patel is best known for his loyalty to Trump and conservative credentials, his history of government service in the legal and national security fields is extensive.

After graduating from law school, Patel moved to Florida and spent eight years as a public defender, trying a multitude of complex cases at trial, ranging from international drug trafficking to financial crimes.

In 2014, Patel joined the US Department of Justice as a terrorism prosecutor, overseeing the investigations and prosecutions of criminals aligned with al-Qaeda, ISIS and other terrorist groups. He simultaneously served as a legal liaison to the Joint Special Operations Command, working with America’s elite counterterrorism units to conduct global operations against high-value terrorism targets.

After a stint as a staffer on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Patel was hired to work in President Trump’s National Security Council and eventually became the senior director for counterterrorism. In addition to coordinating the safe return of numerous Americans held hostage abroad, Patel implemented Trump’s counterterrorism priorities, including the killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria.

Following his role as the deputy director of national intelligence, where he oversaw the operations of all 17 intelligence agencies and administered the President’s Daily Briefing, Patel served in the Department of Defense as the chief of staff to the acting secretary.

While Patel has faced criticism from Democrats and the media for his unwavering loyalty to the president-elect, Patel’s nomination is not surprising given Trump’s displeasure with the current director, Christopher Wray, who he appointed back in 2017 during his first term in the White House. 

Wray, a Republican, has invoked Trump’s ire over what Trump views as political investigations against him, including the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago in 2022.

As Wray has three years remaining in his ten-year term, the current FBI chief would have to resign or be fired for Patel to assume the position.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly promised to end the weaponization of the FBI, including the targeting of traditional Catholics and pro-life activists in recent years.

A relentless critic of corruption and the “deep state,” Patel is widely seen as someone who will implement Trump’s desired reforms at the bureau.

In addition to putting more special agents in the field to “chase down criminals,” Patel has expressed an interest in targeting federal employees and other individuals who leak sensitive information to reporters and instituting major surveillance reform.

Assuming Wray resigns or is fired, it remains to be seen if Patel will be confirmed by the US Senate, where Republicans gained a three-seat majority in the November election.

If confirmed, Patel would lead the FBI in tackling a wide variety of challenges, including America’s violent crime epidemic, terrorism concerns and the overall threats posed by China and Iran.