US President Donald Trump nominates Indian American Kash Patel as FBI Director

Kash Patel, former Chief of Workers to the Defence Secretary, speaks on the day Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a marketing campaign rally, in Prescott Valley, Arizona, U.S., October 13, 2024.
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday (November 30, 2024) nominated shut confidante Kash Patel for the highly effective place of Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, making him the highest-ranking Indian American in his incoming administration.

“I’m proud to announce that Kashyap ‘Kash’ Patel will function the following Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Kash is an excellent lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his profession exposing corruption, defending Justice, and defending the American Individuals,” Mr. Trump introduced on Reality Social, a social media platform he owns.

Mr. Trump stated Mr. Patel performed a pivotal position in uncovering “the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax,” standing as an advocate for fact, accountability, and the Structure. Mr. Patel, 44, served as chief of workers to the Performing United States Secretary of Protection in the previous few weeks of the Trump Administration in 2017.

“Mr. Kash did an unimaginable job throughout my First Time period, the place he served as Chief of Workers on the Division of Defence, Deputy Director of Nationwide Intelligence, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism on the Nationwide Safety Council. Mr. Kash has additionally tried over 60 jury trials,” he stated.

“This FBI will finish the rising crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant prison gangs, and cease the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking throughout the Border. Mr. Kash will work underneath our nice Lawyer Basic, Pam Bondi, to deliver again Constancy, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI,” Mr. Trump stated.

Who’s Kash Patel?

New York-born Mr. Patel has his roots in Gujarat. Nonetheless, his mother and father are from East Africa — mom from Tanzania and father from Uganda. They got here to the U.S. from Canada in 1970. “We’re Gujarati,” he had instructed PTI in an earlier interview.

The household moved to Queens in New York — typically referred to as as Little India — within the late 70s. It’s right here that Mr. Patel was born and grew. Mr. Patel’s mother and father are retired now and spend their time in each the U.S. and Gujarat. After his education in New York and faculty in Richmond, Virginia, and legislation faculty in New York, Patel went to Florida the place he was a state public defender for 4 years after which federal public defender for one more 4 years.

“So, plenty of trials, plenty of worldwide investigations, plenty of time in court docket, understanding the federal system and making an attempt instances and studying how you can run investigations,” he stated.

From Florida he moved to Washington DC as a terrorism prosecutor on the Division of Justice. Right here he was a world terrorism prosecutor for about three and a half years. Throughout this era, he labored on instances everywhere in the world, in America in East Africa in addition to in Uganda and Kenya.

Whereas nonetheless employed by the Division of Justice, he went as a civilian to affix Particular Operations Command on the Division of Protection. On the Pentagon, he sat because the Division of Justice’s lawyer with Particular Forces individuals and labored interagency collaborative focusing on operations around the globe.

After a 12 months within the place, Congressman Davin Nunes, Chairman of the Home Everlasting Choose on Intelligence Committee, pulled him as senior counsel on counterterrorism. After April 2017, he spearheaded the Russia investigation of the Home Intelligence Committee. It was right here the place he attracted media consideration and performed a key position in drafting a GOP memo, which, in accordance with then-President Donald Trump, uncovered the position of Democratic get together and its management within the Russian investigation.

The New York Instances described this as a “Kash Memo.” Patel stated that this was a “nice staff effort.”

Mr. Patel is an Ice hockey fan and has been taking part in the game since he was six. “I nonetheless play and I spend plenty of time volunteering teaching youth hockey within the space.”

Mr. Patel, who attended each the Houston and Ahmedabad rallies of Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2019 and February 2020, had earlier instructed PTI that the bilateral relationship had deteriorated underneath the Biden Administration.

“President Trump and Prime Minister Modi had a rare relationship with respect. And so they had been working collectively to counteract the issues like Chinese language aggression, not simply on the Indian border however on the worldwide stage. They had been additionally working collectively to counteract issues in Pakistan when it got here to counterterrorism issues and hostage conditions,” MR. Patel stated.

The 2 leaders knew that not solely the robust relationship but in addition permitting the economies of scale to be inbuilt India and America had been mutually helpful, Mr. Patel stated.

Final fall he wrote the ebook ‘Authorities Gangster’ which argued that there’s a extreme lack of accountability. The ebook talks concerning the deep state and is very important of the U.S. paperwork, which he claims is very infiltrated or dominated by lawbreakers.

Responding to a query, Mr. Patel then instructed PTI that the Biden Administration and the deep state are interwoven.

“The Biden administration is crammed by these corrupt authorities gangsters who I record at the back of my ebook by identify and title. It isn’t a Democrat or Republican factor. It is an apolitical factor that these people, whether or not they’re Trump appointees like Christopher W Ray or Biden appointees like Merrick Garland, they’re led to this two-tier system of justice the place they weaponise authorities and intelligence and legislation enforcement to focus on both conservatives or Trump supporters or name individuals on January sixth, home terrorists,” he stated.