President-elect Trump has nominated Kash Patel to be the next FBI director, a person with an extensive background in national security and intelligence.
Patel’s experience ranges from personally carrying out dangerous missions in the Middle East in an effort to bring home U.S. hostages to implementing counterterrorism strategies against America’s most-wanted terrorists. Current and former U.S. national security officials and lawmakers say that when looking at his résumé “objectively,” he is “one of the most experienced people ever to be nominated” to lead the bureau.
During the first Trump administration, Patel served as a deputy assistant to Trump and as senior director for counterterrorism. In that role, Patel was involved in presidential missions aimed at decimating Al-Qaeda senior leadership and ISIS command and control. Patel was involved in the planning of the mission to take out Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, among others.
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Kash Patel, a former chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, speaks during a campaign event for Republican candidates at the Whiskey Roads Restaurant & Bar in Tucson, Arizona, on July 31, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Patel also was involved in efforts to bring some of the most-wanted terrorists to the U.S. for prosecution, and worked on Trump administration efforts to return dozens of U.S. hostages back home.
“When I was national security adviser, Kash was my senior director for counterterrorism. He was responsible for all interagency actions against ISIS, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations,” former White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien told Fox News Digital. “He was also responsible for hostage rescues, and he did a great job on both fronts.”
O’Brien recalled Patel’s “tremendous personal bravery” with regard to Austin Tice, a hostage who has been held presumably by the Syrian government for more than 12 years.
In 2020, O’Brien said Syrians “finally agreed to let an American come in for negotiations and I asked Kash Patel and Amb. Roger Carstens if they would go.”
White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien speaks during a turnover ceremony of defense articles at the Department of Foreign Affairs office in Manila, Philippines, on Nov. 23, 2020. (Eloisa Lopez/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“I wanted someone from the White House, so it wasn’t just representatives of the State Department. Kash was the White House’s man,” O’Brien said. “They traveled overland from Beirut to Damascus through territory where the Al Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda, ISIS and Hezbollah were all present. It was a very complex situation. They drove all the way to Damascus to meet with the head of Assad’s intelligence service.”
O’Brien said the “Syrians themselves could easily have taken Kash and Roger hostage.”
“I have never heard Kash talk or tell war stories about that mission to try to save a fellow American,” O’Brien said.
He added: “I would say to anyone who ignorantly criticizes Kash Patel’s character, tell me the last time you did something dangerous to try to save a stranger.”
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Not everyone shared O’Brien’s rosy representation of Patel. Fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and others have blasted Trump’s pick of Patel, claiming he is unqualified.
But O’Brien and others say those attacks “are entirely politically motivated because he supports the president’s America First agenda.”
“There was a time when Democrats would have applauded a president for appointing someone with criminal defense experience and who is against the FBI surveilling American citizens — but that was a very different Democrat party,” O’Brien said.
Beyond his counterterrorism work, Patel was heavily involved in U.S. strategy to counter Chinese, Russian, Iranian and North Korean efforts against U.S. interests. He also worked on the implementation of multimillion-dollar sanctions against foreign adversaries.
Victoria Coates, a former deputy national security adviser to Trump and vice president for national security at the Heritage Foundation, said that Patel was a “strong colleague” at the National Security Council (NSC) and “understands that critical piece of our national security architecture.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation seal outside headquarters in Washington, D.C., on July 3, 2023. (Celal Güneş/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“After four years of Biden-Harris mismanagement, he will be the strong hand the FBI needs to keep the American people safe,” Coates said. “Instead of a director who spends all his time testifying to Congress about all the red lights he sees flashing across the dashboard, we will have one who will do something to actually put them out.”
Prior to working as a deputy to Trump and in the NSC, Patel worked in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as the principal deputy to the acting DNI Ric Grenell and helped former Director John Ratcliffe transition into the role. Trump nominated Ratcliffe last month to serve as the director of the CIA.
At ODNI, Patel also worked to focus intelligence collection against counter narcotic and transnational threats.
“Kash brings a lot of passion to government service because he has seen what corruption is like from the inside,” Grenell said. “He is a first-generation American who knows how elites manipulate the system so they retain power and control over Americans.”
“Reforming Washington and its insular ways requires courage,” Grenell continued. “Those of us outside of Washington who want reform have to stop expecting those who live and work in Washington to deliver reform. They are never going to reform themselves.”
Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Prior to joining the Trump administration, Patel served as the national security adviser and senior counsel for counterterrorism to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
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Patel was the chief investigator for the committee’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Throughout his investigation, he led the effort to uncover FISA abuse and exposed the FBI and the DOJ’s unlawful actions before federal court to illegally surveil Americans, including members of the 2016 Trump campaign.
“The best thing about Kash is, because of his previous government experience and his key role in uncovering Russiagate, he won’t be bamboozled by the bureaucracy,” said former Trump White House deputy national security adviser KT McFarland.
“Intelligence community bureaucrats cover up their mistakes and malfeasance by hiding behind the ‘sources and methods’ excuse. They slow-walk de-classification efforts and internal investigations. Most appointed officials new to intel bureaucracy fall for it — Kash won’t.”
Former Trump White House deputy national security adviser KT McFarland. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
McFarland said that critics of Patel claim that he will “seek revenge,” but she declared that those critics “are wrong.”
“Remember, government bureaucrats always leave a paper trail of their actions,” she said. “Kash can expose them by declassifying these documents and then letting the American people decide whether these nameless, faceless FBI and DOJ bureaucrats have abused their power with a two-tier system of justice — by prosecuting their political opponents and protecting their allies.”
Patel, a lawyer, served as a public defender and national security prosecutor at the Justice Department and tried scores of complex criminal cases. All told, Patel has served in the U.S. government for 16 years.
His final role in the Trump administration was serving as the chief of staff at the Department of Defense.
Kash Patel speaks during a campaign rally for former President Trump at Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, Arizona, on Oct. 13. (Getty Images)
“Kash Patel is the right guy for the job,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital.
Jordan said he worked closely with Patel when he served among then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes’ top staffers.
“He did an outstanding job,” Jordan said.
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And soon to be on the other side of Capitol Hill, Sen.-elect Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital that Patel “will shake up the FBI.”
“He has my support and vote for confirmation,” said Banks.
