President-elect Donald Trump announced on Saturday: He plans to name it. Kash Patel will replace current FBI Director Chris Wray as FBI Director.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called Patel “an outstanding lawyer, investigator and ‘America First’ champion who has dedicated his career to exposing corruption, defending justice and protecting the American people.” .
For Patel to take up the position, he is currently FBI Director Chris Wray If Trump is to be replaced before his term ends in 2027, he would have to voluntarily step aside or be fired by Trump. A source previously told CBS News that Trump’s team is aware of the complexities involved in ousting Wray.
Patel also must be confirmed by the Senate. Trump did not call for Wray to resign in his social media posts.
After firing James Comey in 2017, Trump nominated Wray to a 10-year term.
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“Every day, FBI employees continue to work to protect the American people from a growing number of threats,” an FBI spokesperson told CBS News. “Director Wray’s focus remains on FBI employees and the public.” We work together, and the people we work with work together.”
Patel, 44 service During President Trump’s first term, he served in intelligence and defense roles from Chief of Staff to Secretary of Defense. He was also designated by Trump as a representative of the National Archives and Records Administration and testified before a federal grand jury. Mar-a-Lago confidential document case.
He is a lawyer and staunch Trump loyalist who rose to prominence as an aide to former Republican Congressman Devin Nunes from California. inspection About Russian interference in the 2016 election.
After working on President Trump’s National Security Council (NSC), he served as a senior advisor to Acting Director of National Intelligence Rick Grenell and later as Chief of Staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.
Patel published a book called ‘Government Gangsters’ in 2023, which received praise from Trump, in which he wrote that “the FBI has become so thoroughly compromised that it will remain a threat to the public unless drastic action is taken.” .
“This is a roadmap to ending the rule of the Deep State,” Trump told Truth Social about the book in September 2023.
Born in Long Island, New York, Patel received his undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond, a law degree from Pace University, and a certificate in international law from College London. He served as a county and federal public defender in Florida from 2005 to 2013 before joining the Justice Department as a trial attorney.
speaking Steve Bannon’s Patel said in a December 2023 podcast that he and other Trump loyalists “will find the conspirators not only in government, but also in the media.”
“We will go after journalists who lied about American citizens and helped rig the presidential election for Joe Biden.” Patel told Bannon, who was Trump’s chief White House strategist during his first term: false claim Voter fraud in the 2020 election has been mentioned frequently, without evidence, by many Republican leaders. “Whether it’s criminal or civil, we’re going to pursue you. We’re going to find out. But yes, we’re going to warn you all… We’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for the crimes they committed. . We said we were always guilty, but never were.”
Wray and FBI leadership became targets of Trump’s ongoing ire in 2022, when FBI agents executed a court-authorized search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. The investigation revealed an ongoing federal investigation into President Trump’s handling of classified records after he left office.
As a result of the investigation, Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, ultimately indicted President Trump on dozens of charges, including illegal possession of national defense information and obstruction of business. Earlier this year, a federal judge dismissed all charges. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Earlier this week, Federal appeals court approval Smith attempted to end the case, citing a long-standing Justice Department policy prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president.
If confirmed by the Senate, Patel would become the third FBI director to serve under the Trump administration and take charge of the nation’s top federal law enforcement agency amid years of harsh criticism from Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill. Wray’s resignation was largely expected, but Trump’s announcement that he would replace Wray before the end of his 10-year term is certain to reverberate throughout the bureau’s ranks. But the president has the power to oust them from their positions, and many former directors did not serve their full terms.
Patel will report directly to the U.S. Attorney General. Trump’s current choice for the position is former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. The president-elect announced the nomination after former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his nomination. His confirmation prospects looked bleak as a bipartisan group of senators raised concerns about his past conduct and a congressional ethics report. Gaetz, a harsh critic of the Justice Department and FBI, has denied wrongdoing.
Whoever Trump chooses to be attorney general and FBI director will likely be tasked with overhauling agencies and sweeping policies that have long been targets of the president-elect.
Wray, a former federal prosecutor and counterterrorism official, was nominated by then-President Trump in 2017. President Biden retained him as FBI Director throughout his term.
While deep distrust of the FBI has been a focus of Trump and his supporters, Wray has spent much of his time in office countering Chinese espionage. He sounded the alarm about foreign efforts to target U.S. infrastructure and warned of an aggressive posture by Iran and Russia. The FBI employs approximately 35,000 people, including thousands of field agents, who are tasked with enforcing federal law and investigating crimes nationwide, including terrorism, espionage, and child exploitation.
The last FBI director to complete his 10-year term was Robert Mueller, who was later appointed special prosecutor during Trump’s first administration to investigate Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election and alleged collusion with the Trump campaign. Mueller, as well as the entire Justice Department and FBI, have become targets of Trump and Republican lawmakers in Congress.
President Trump’s firing of then-FBI Director James Comey in 2017 due to his investigation into the 2016 presidential election also influenced the appointment of special counsel Mueller. Comey, who later became an outspoken critic of the president-elect, resigned from his top position at the FBI, putting him in conflict with Democratic and Republican lawmakers. The Justice Department inspector general’s report, released years after he was fired, said Comey “violated department and FBI policy” when he shared a memo he wrote about his relationship with Trump with a friend.
