Trump nominates Kash Patel for FBI director

[Vambram]

Trump nominates Kash Patel for FBI director

Patel is among President-elect Donald Trump's most ardent supporters.

justthenews.com

Donald Trump announced Saturday night that he has picked Kash Patel to serve as FBI director.

“I am proud to announce that Kashyap “Kash” Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Trump posted on Truth Social, about the nomination of one is most loyal supproters. “Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.”

The 44-year-old Patel is an attorney with experience in counterterrorism, intelligence and national security. His name surfaced a finalist for the nomination just days after Trump's Nov. 5 presidential victory.

 

[Vambram]

What You Need to Know About Kash Patel–Trump’s Choice for FBI Director

Last year, Patel’s book “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” was published that detailed his critique of federal agencies, including the Justice Department and the FBI.

During the first Trump administration, Patel was the chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.

Before that, Patel was the deputy assistant to the president and the senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council.

While at the NSC, he helped oversee Trump policies that included eliminating the Islamic State terrorist group, as well as Al Qaeda leadership such as al-Baghdadi and Qasem al-Rimi.

Patel also was the principal deputy to the former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, who oversaw the operations of 17 intelligence community agencies.

Before going to the White House, Patel was senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, under then-Chairiman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and oversaw the investigation into the Russian active measures campaign to influence the 2016 presidential–election.

He also played a key role in the Nunes memo that showed the FBI relied on partisan “politically motivated or questionable sources” to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

The two and a half year investigation into whether Trump conspired with the Russian government to win the 2016 election was prompted by information fed to the FBI from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and Democrat operatives. The House panel and later special counsel Robert Mueller concluded there was no evidence that Trump conspired with Russians.

If confirmed, Patel would return to law enforcement, which is what he did before his time on Capitol Hill when he was a terrorism prosecutor at the Justice Department.

While at the Justice Department, Patel was also the liaison officer to Joint Special Operations Command, to conduct collaborative targeting operations against high value terrorism targets.

What You Need to Know About Kash Patel–Trump's Choice for FBI Director

Kash Patel, with a vast national security background, has written that federal bureaucrats--including the FBI--are "government gangsters."

www.dailysignal.com

 

[Arcangl86]

I'm a bit concerned, if not surprised, that such a blatant Trump loyalist was nominated, but at least he does have experience in federal law enforcement.

 

[Valletta]

Trump nominates Kash Patel for FBI director

Patel is among President-elect Donald Trump's most ardent supporters.

justthenews.com

Donald Trump announced Saturday night that he has picked Kash Patel to serve as FBI director.

“I am proud to announce that Kashyap “Kash” Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Trump posted on Truth Social, about the nomination of one is most loyal supproters. “Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.”

The 44-year-old Patel is an attorney with experience in counterterrorism, intelligence and national security. His name surfaced a finalist for the nomination just days after Trump's Nov. 5 presidential victory.

Great choice!

 

[Yttrium]

Patel is a vital pick for the Trump administration. He's an ideal choice to purge the FBI of those who would stand in Trump's way. I expect him to act quickly and decisively. Then he can focus on targets that the FBI wouldn't touch before, while also shutting down all those tiresome investigations into Trump and his allies. Such investigations would be pointless wastes of money now anyway.

 

[Vambram]

Kash Patel's nomination sparks enthusiasm, anxiety; future of the FBI appears uncertain

The nomination of Kash Patel, who will serve as FBI director if approved by the Senate, sparked intense backlash from the left and effusive praise from the right Saturday.

www.foxnews.com

Patel's nomination was met with instant praise from Republicans. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Trump's pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called Patel an "America First fighter." Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., also praised the pick.

"Great choice by @realDonaldTrump," Donalds wrote on X. "Kash is a patriot and 100% America First."

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, also issued his congratulations.
"Kash was INSTRUMENTAL in President Trump’s first term and will be EVEN GREATER in his second!" the former White House physician wrote. "Time to clean this place up, and Kash is the man to do it!!! MAGA!"

Commentators on the left, however, panned the pick. MSNBC’s Morning Joe previously called Patel the "personification of MAGA rage about the Justice Department and the FBI."

On Saturday night, far-left commentator Mehdi Hasan accused Patel of being a "deeply strange and alarming and sycophantic figure." Andrew McCabe, who briefly served as acting FBI director under Trump in 2017 before being fired for allegedly leaking to the media and a "lack of candor," called Patel's nomination "a plan to disrupt, to dismantle, to distract the FBI."

"It's a terrible development for the men and women of the FBI and also for the nation that depends on a highly functioning, professional, independent Federal Bureau of Investigation," McCabe said on CNN. "The fact that Kash Patel is profoundly unqualified for this job is not even, like, a matter for debate."

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Trump nominates Kash Patel for FBI director

Patel is among President-elect Donald Trump's most ardent supporters.

justthenews.com

Donald Trump announced Saturday night that he has picked Kash Patel to serve as FBI director.

“I am proud to announce that Kashyap “Kash” Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Trump posted on Truth Social, about the nomination of one is most loyal supproters. “Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.”

The 44-year-old Patel is an attorney with experience in counterterrorism, intelligence and national security. His name surfaced a finalist for the nomination just days after Trump's Nov. 5 presidential victory.

I suspect ,if and when he takes this position, he will quickly realize that there is NO SUCH THING as a clandestine " deep state"!
What is really humorous is if there really was this hidden government he won't find it in the FBI or anywhere near it!

 

[wing2000]

Patel is a vital pick for the Trump administration. He's an ideal choice to purge the FBI of those who would stand in Trump's way. I

Is this the United States of America? Purge? Do you really believe the nation's chief law enforcement agency should be purging employees based on a political ideology?

 

[MotoToTheMax]

Is this the United States of America? Purge? Do you really believe the nation's chief law enforcement agency should be purging employees based on a political ideology?

Said poster is going on a semi-satirical arc of posting accelerationist ideas. I don't think he really wants it as is his own desire, but more of a hope that it happens because Maga people do want that. A version of being hoisted by their own petard.

I happen to agree 100%. I hope Trump actually does everything he says he wants to. The consequences will be excused regardless, but it will be from their own doing.

 

[Yttrium]

Is this the United States of America? Purge? Do you really believe the nation's chief law enforcement agency should be purging employees based on a political ideology?

Under normal circumstances, certainly not, it's a horrible idea. But America has elected Trump, America knew what it was getting into, and we deserve what we get. Let the pain run deep! Muhahaha!

 

[essentialsaltes]

"We're going to come after you": Kash Patel pledges revenge if Trump wins again​

“We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out," Patel said.​

Threats of political revenge are commonplace among Donald Trump and his supporters.

”We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” Patel said in a recent [December] interview with Steve Bannon, referring to the 2020 presidential election.

Good to hear the political weaponization of federal law enforcement will become a thing of the past. And that we'll finally get to the bottom of the 2020 election fraud, and prove that Trump won it, no matter how many people we have to imprison.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Is this the United States of America? Purge? Do you really believe the nation's chief law enforcement agency should be purging employees based on a political ideology?

Isn't this sort of just "defund the police" at a federal level?

I suspect if Republicans opt to slash FBI presence/powers for political reasons (much like what happened to federal and state law enforcement in 2020/2021 due to political ideologically motivated reasoning), they'll see the same kinds of negative results.

Except, the types of crimes that will be involved will be much more severe in nature.

Instead of shoplifting and low level drug dealing running rampant, it'll be much higher level types of organized crime and cyber crime.

While, from a personal perspective, I'm all for making certain government branches and agencies run leaner and more efficiently, it needs to be more measured, and done for reasons not purely in the realm of political pandering.

For instance, if it were discovered that their accounting department had 150 people and could easily operate with 100, that's a good cut.

"We don't like the FBI because they targeted Trump, so let's just cutting people who were involved in that" is a bad cut.

 

[Pommer]

I suspect ,if and when he takes this position, he will quickly realize that there is NO SUCH THING as a clandestine " deep state"!
What is really humorous is if there really was this hidden government he won't find it in the FBI or anywhere near it!

The house is dirty, Patel’s going to clean it…and replace dirty (not loyal to 45/7) operatives, with clean ones.

 

[Vambram]

I suspect ,if and when he takes this position, he will quickly realize that there is NO SUCH THING as a clandestine " deep state"!
What is really humorous is if there really was this hidden government he won't find it in the FBI or anywhere near it!

I promise you that there is indeed a deep state of bureaucracy of so-called "experts" and the weaponization of lawfare against political opponents of the progressive left wing liberal agenda in various places across America demonstrates this.

 

[Vambram]

Kash Patel’s prescription for an ailing FBI: accountability and house cleaning
Patel has extensive experience as a public defender, federal prosecutor, House Intelligence Committee counsel, National Security Council member and chief of staff at the Pentagon.

When Ronald Reagan sought to reshape the federal government nearly a half century ago, he and his team adopted a simple philosophy: personnel is policy. In other words, the people you hire, and fire, will make a difference.

President-elect Donald Trump’s new pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, subscribes to a similar prescription for the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, which has lost significant trust from the American people over a decade of scandal and failure.

From his time as chief investigative counsel at the House Intelligence Committee, where he unraveled the FBI’s bogus Russia collusion narrative, to his best-selling book “Government Gangsters” where he chronicled the weaponization of law enforcement against Trump and conservatives, Patel has laid out clear plans on how to re-focus the bureau on its core missions of law enforcement and intelligence gathering and away from politics.

That job, he insists, begins by cleaning house throughout the FBI’s several layers of leadership that became infected with ideologies like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and created a culture where parents and traditional Catholics were viewed as extremist threats and support for Trump and the Second Amendment were deemed reasons to review an employee's security clearance.

In his book “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” Patel argues that a thorough “house cleaning” of FBI leadership is the key to resetting the agency and unleashing the skills of its rank-and-file agents.

Kash Patel’s prescription for an ailing FBI: accountability and house cleaning

Patel has extensive experience as a public defender, federal prosecutor, House Intelligence Committee counsel, National Security Council member and chief of staff at the Pentagon.

justthenews.com

Government Agency Ratings Remain Largely Negative

Government Agency Ratings Remain Largely Negative

Americans rate 12 of 16 federal government agencies and departments negatively. The U.S. Postal Service remains the highest-rated agency.

news.gallup.com

 

[wing2000]

Isn't this sort of just "defund the police" at a federal level?

No, it is not.

 

[wing2000]

Patel:
“Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” Patel said of Trump’s plans in a 2023 podcast with Trump ally Stephen K. Bannon. “We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly — we’ll figure that out.”


".....listen to Trump’s former attorney general, William P. Barr, who objected to Trump’s first-term efforts to install Patel in the No. 2 job at the FBI. In his memoir, Barr said he told then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that Patel would get the deputy job “over my dead body.”

Patel, Barr wrote, “had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency. The very idea of moving Patel into a role like this showed a shocking detachment from reality.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/01/kash-patel-fbi-nomination-trump-unqualified/

 

[Valletta]

Patel, Barr wrote, “had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency. The very idea of moving Patel into a role like this showed a shocking detachment from reality.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/01/kash-patel-fbi-nomination-trump-unqualified/

The truth is Kash has exemplary experience. Kash was a Deputy DNI, a National Security Council member, a public defender and also a federal prosecutor, the House Intelligence Committee counsel, a National Security Council member and a Pentagon chief of staff. The Biden administration, with their lawfare and dishonesty, has put our nation in great danger. Patel needs to set things right so never again will there be such massive abuses of power.

“I gotta say, all of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, people pulling their hair out, are the people dismayed about having a real reformer come into the FBI and clean out the corrupted partisans who sadly have burrowed into senior career positions at the FBI,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told CBS News’ “Face The Nation” on Sunday.

Trump’s choice of Kash Patel to lead the FBI is already causing glee on the right and panic on the left

But there is already some skepticism emerging. “Kash Patel must prove to Congress he will reform & restore public trust in FBI,” Sen. Chuck Grassley said on X.

nypost.com

 

[ThatRobGuy]

No, it is not.

How it is not?

It's basically threatening to gut/neuter a law enforcement agency (for political reasons), that could have some pretty serious consequences.


Seems like it's the same flawed "throw the baby out with the bathwater" mentality.

 

[rjs330]

It's not about ideology. It's about practice and focus. What has the leadership focused on and what was their agenda? Where they doing things they shouldnt have been doing? It certainly appears so. When you've listened focus as a leader you need to go. When you are doing things you shouldn't have been doing, you need to go. To be a respected and effective law enforcement organization you have to focus on the right things and in practice act with the highest integrity. If you haven't done so then you need to go. The FBI needs new leadership that will focus on the right things and will act with integrity, instead of acting like the enforcement arm of the Democratic Party to go after political opponents and excuse those on the Democratic Party side. Bringing new leadership who can focus stear the FBI back to it's primary focus and bring integrity back will be a boon to all.

I quote an article again: Patel has laid out clear plans on how to re-focus the bureau on its core missions of law enforcement and intelligence gathering and away from politics.

Exactly how it should be. If the current leadership isn't showing a desire to do that then they need to go. Let's find leaders in the organization who will.