Trump announces he intends to replace current FBI director with loyalist Kash Patel
CNN
By Zachary Cohen, Kristen Holmes and Evan Perez, CNN
(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he intends to nominate Kash Patel to serve as FBI director, in an extraordinary announcement that once in office Trump would move to replace the current director, Christopher Wray, before his term expires.
“I am proud to announce that Kashyap ‘Kash’ Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday evening.
“Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI,” Trump added.
Wray has three years remaining in his 10-year term and would have to resign or be fired to create a vacancy. Trump nominated Wray in 2017 after firing James Comey, but he began to sour on Wray before he left office in 2021. Trump’s view of the FBI only worsened after his Mar-a-Lago resort was searched in August 2022, and Trump was later indicted for allegedly retaining classified documents.
Even among Trump loyalists, Patel is widely viewed as a controversial figure and relentless self-promoter whose value largely derives from a shared disdain for the so-called deep state.
Patel rose to prominence within Trump’s orbit in 2018, when he served as an aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee at the time. Patel played a key role in Nunes’ efforts to discredit the FBI’s Russia investigation into the Trump campaign, including a controversial classified memo that alleged FBI abuses of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants on Trump advisers.
In 2019, Patel went to work for Trump on the National Security Council before becoming chief of staff to the acting defense secretary at the end of Trump’s first term.
When Trump considered firing then-CIA Director Gina Haspel after the 2020 election – as he pushed to release more information about the Russia investigation – Patel was floated as a potential replacement.
While that never came to pass, Patel has remained a fixture in Trump’s orbit, though his proximity to the president-elect has ebbed and flowed.
The mixed views of Patel among those close to Trump has been on display during the transition process as he was passed over for the job of CIA director – a role sources say he had actively lobbied for.
This story has been updated with additional information.
The-CNN-Wire
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