Trump says he will fire FBI Director Christopher Wray and replace him with longtime ally Kash Patel

President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday that he plans to fire FBI Director Christopher Wray and replace him with his longtime ally, Kash Patel.

The nomination must be approved by the Senate.

Patel has been a staunch Trump supporter for years and served in several positions in his first administration. He loudly defended many of the January 6 rioters who were charged for their actions that day.

Patel said he would target journalists, former top FBI and Justice Department officials and turn the FBI into a museum of the “deep state” from day one.

“This FBI will end America’s growing crime epidemic, dismantle migrant criminal gangs, and end the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the border,” Trump said in a Truth article Social, announcing his choice.

Patel did not immediately comment on Trump’s announcement. Trump cannot make personnel changes at the FBI until he is sworn in.

Wray, the agency’s current director, was appointed in 2017 after Trump fired Director James Comey, less than four years into his 10-year tenure. Trump said Comey was “not 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 is always on the men and women of the FBI, the people we do the work and the people we do the work for.

Former public defender with DOJ experience

Patel, 44, grew up on Long Island and earned a law degree from Pace University Law School. He initially served as a public defender in Miami for nine years before moving to Washington, D.C., in 2013 to work in the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.

Patel left the Justice Department in 2017, citing frustration with the agency, including its handling of the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others Americans.

Role in investigation into Russia investigation

He then led the “Russia Gate” investigation for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, with Nunes promising that after the investigation he would help Patel get a job on the Security Council. national security from the White House.

As “lead investigator of the Russia Gate hoax,” Patel authored the so-called “Nunes memo,” alleging that the FBI inappropriately eavesdropped on former Trump adviser Carter Page.

A major report from the Justice Department’s inspector general released in late 2019 found that the FBI was not influenced by political bias when it opened the investigation — while highlighting what it called “serious performance deficiencies” by officers when reviewing information. from sources and requested surveillance warrants against Page.

In February 2019, Patel became deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism on the White House National Security Council.

In February 2020, Patel accepted a “temporary assignment” as deputy to the new acting director of national intelligence. In November of that year, after Trump’s election defeat, Patel was named chief of staff of the Department of Defense, despite some critics saying he was unqualified for the role.

After Trump left the White House, Patel held several jobs, including hosting shows at far-right media outlets.

DOJ’s call for “housekeeping”

In Patel’s book, “Government Gangsters,” which Trump said would serve as a “model” for his next administration, Patel called for a “complete cleanup” of the Justice Department. He also encouraged the eradication of “government tyranny” within the FBI by firing “top brass” and prosecuting “to the fullest extent of the law” anyone who “in any way abused his authority in any way.” political purposes”.

“[T]The FBI has become so compromised that it will remain a threat to the public unless drastic action is taken,” Patel asserted in his book. Democrats “should be very afraid,” Patel wrote.

He alleged that there were “abuses of prosecutorial discretion” by the Justice Department in refusing to indict Hillary Clinton for allegedly compromising classified information by using a private email server, and refusing to indict President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, for what Patel describes as influence peddling. At the same time, he argued that the department indicted Trump ally Steve Bannon for his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and also charging a large number of Trump supporters who were at the Capitol that day.

In a podcast two months ago, Patel said anyone involved in “Russiagate” should have their security clearances revoked.

According to Patel, there is a “massive” list of such government officials, from the FBI and the Department of Justice to the CIA and the U.S. military.

“They all still have clearances,” including those who left the government to work in the private sector, so “everyone” should lose their clearances, Patel said.

Patel said he personally “recommended” to Trump that the new administration also remove all security clearances still held by the then-51 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 a letter rejecting the public release of the CIA’s emails. Hunter Biden’s laptop as part of “Russian information”. operation.”

Defended January 6 rioters, subpoenaed to testify in Trump classified documents case

Patel also came to the defense of the January 6 rioters who were charged for their actions.

He raised money for the January 6 defendants and their families, including promoting the “J6 Prison Choir”, featuring the January 6 defendants still in prison, and co-producing their fundraising song “Justice for all,” which Trump played during some of the January 6 charges. his campaign rallies. And Patel once suggested that January 6 was “a movement for free speech.”

Patel also participated in the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

After news surfaced that the National Archives had found classified documents in boxes previously stored at Mar-a-Lago, Patel called the news “disinformation” and insisted he was there when Trump “declassified entire sets of documents in anticipation of his planned departure from government.” the American public should have the right to read for 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 document that they blocked from being declassified at the National Archives, and we’ll start putting this information.

Two months later, Patel claimed that Trump’s declassified documents were included in the FBI affidavit explaining why the FBI believed a broad search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property was justified. And Patel was subpoenaed to testify before the investigating grand jury, but he initially refused to answer key questions.

He then came back before the grand jury and only answered those questions after he was granted limited use immunity. He called the entire investigation an illegal overreach by a politically corrupt Justice Department.