Trump intends to nominate his former aide Kash Patel as FBI director

President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday that he is considering nominating Kash Patel as FBI director, replacing current FBI chief Chris Wray.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called Patel “a brilliant lawyer, investigator and fighter for 'America First' who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice and protecting the American people.” .

For Patel to take the job, current FBI Director Chris Wray would have to voluntarily leave his post or be fired by Trump if he is to be replaced before his term ends in 2027. A source previously told CBS News that the Trump team was aware of the complexities surrounding Wray's ouster.

Patel will also need to be confirmed by the Senate. In his social media post, Trump did not call on Wray to resign.

Trump appointed Wray in 2017 to a 10-year term after firing James Comey.

Former Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense Kash Patel speaks during a Trump campaign rally at the Minden-Tahoe Airport October 8, 2022, in Minden, Nevada. Getty Images

An FBI spokesperson told CBS News in a statement that “Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats. Director Wray remains focused on the men and women of the FBI, people. we do the work and the people we do it for. »

Patel, 44, held intelligence and defense positions during Trump's first term, including chief of staff to the secretary of defense. He was also appointed by Trump as a representative to the National Archives and Records Administration and testified before a federal grand jury in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

He is a lawyer and staunch Trump loyalist who rose to prominence as an aide to former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California, fighting the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

He served on Trump's National Security Council, then as a senior advisor to acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, and later as chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.

Patel published a book in 2023 called “Government Gangsters,” which received praise from Trump and in which Patel writes that “the FBI has become so completely compromised that it will remain a threat to the people unless drastic measures are taken.” be taken.”

“This is the road map to ending the rule of the deep state,” Trump said on Truth Social about the book in September 2023.

Patel, born in Long Island, New York, did his undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond and received his law degree from Pace University, as well as a certificate in international law from the University of College from London. He served as a county and federal public defender in Florida from 2005 to 2013 before joining the Department of Justice as a trial attorney.

Speaking on Steve Bannon's podcast in December 2023, Patel said he and other Trump loyalists will “go out and find the conspirators, not only in government but in the media.”

“We're going to go after people in the media who lied about American citizens helping Joe Biden rig the presidential election,” Patel told Bannon, the former chief White House strategist during Biden's first term. Trump, repeating false claims often made, without evidence, by many Republican leaders, of voter fraud in the 2020 election. “We're going to pursue you, whether it's criminal or civil. We're going to find out. But yes , we let's all warn… We're actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for the crimes they committed said we were always guilty but we never did it.

Wray and FBI leaders became targets of Trump's lingering ire in 2022, when FBI agents executed a court-authorized search warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. The research revealed what was an ongoing federal investigation into Trump's handling of classified materials after he left office.

Special counsel Jack Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, ultimately charged Trump with dozens of counts, including illegal retention of national defense information and obstruction, following the investigation . All charges were dismissed by a federal judge earlier this year. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.

Earlier this week, a federal appeals court granted Smith's request to end the case, with Smith citing a long-standing Justice Department policy that prohibits prosecuting a sitting president.

If confirmed by the Senate, Patel would be the third FBI director to work under a Trump administration and would take charge of the nation's top federal law enforcement apparatus, amid years of intense criticism of the from Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill. While Wray's departure was widely expected, Trump's announcement that he would replace Wray before the end of his 10-year term is sure to reverberate through the office's base. Presidents, however, have the power to expel them from office, and many former directors have not served their full terms.

Patel would report directly to the U.S. Attorney General — Trump's current pick for the position is former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. The president-elect announced her nomination after former Congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew his nomination because his confirmation prospects appeared dim as a bipartisan group of senators raised concerns about his past conduct and a report from ethics of Congress. Gaetz – a staunch critic of the Justice Department and the FBI – has denied any wrongdoing.

Trump's nominees for attorney general and FBI director will likely be tasked with possible reforms and mass policy overhauls of the agencies that have long been targets of the president-elect.

Wray — a former federal prosecutor and counterterrorism official — was appointed by then-President Trump in 2017. President Biden retained him as FBI director throughout his administration.

While deep distrust of the FBI has been a focal point for Trump and his supporters, Wray has devoted much of his tenure to countering China's espionage campaigns. He sounded the alarm over foreign efforts to target U.S. infrastructure and warned of aggressive stances by Iran and Russia. The FBI employs approximately 35,000 people, including thousands of field agents, responsible for enforcing federal law and investigating crimes across the country, including terrorism, espionage and child exploitation. .

The last FBI director to serve a full 10-year post was Robert Mueller, who was later named special counsel under the first Trump administration to investigate Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election and the allegations of collusion with the Trump campaign. Mueller, and by extension the entire Justice Department and FBI, quickly became a target for Trump and congressional Republicans.

Trump's decision to fire then-FBI Director James Comey in 2017 over the investigation into the 2016 election contributed to Mueller's appointment as special counsel. Comey, who has since become a vocal critic of the president-elect, found himself at odds with both Democrats and Republicans after his departure from the FBI's top job. A Justice Department inspector general report released in the years after his firing found that Comey “violated department and FBI policies” when he shared notes he had written with a friend on his interactions with Trump.

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Robert Légaré

Robert Legare is a CBS News multi-platform reporter and producer who covers the Justice Department, federal courts and investigations. He was previously an associate producer for “CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell.”

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