Who is Kash Patel, the first Indian American FBI Director?

Kash Patel took over as the ninth director of the FBI, succeeding Christopher Wray for a stated tenure of 10 years. Patel was part of Trump’s entourage during the US President’s visit to India in 2020

Hyderabad: The United States President Donald Trump’s loyalist Kash Patel became the first Indian American Director of the FBI. The Senate narrowly voted (51-49) to place him atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency.

Patel’s nomination was among the most controversial by Trump in his second term, along with Tulsi Gabbard, for director of national intelligence, and Robert F Kennedy Jr, for heading health and human services.

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Who is Kash Patel?

Born on February 25, 1980, Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel popularly known as Kash Patel, was born in New York to Gujarati Hindu immigrant parents. His parents first moved to Canada in 1970s from Uganda and subsequently to the United States.

He is a lawyer by profession, a former federal prosecutor and official, and a  conspiracy theorist. He served as a National Security Council official, chief of staff to the acting US Secretary of Defence and senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence during the first term of Donald Trump as the US President.

Among his many roles, Patel played a key part in helping Republicans in the investigations into Trump and Russian interference into 2016 elections. He was instrumental in drafting the Nunes Memo in 2018, which alleged falsification in the FBI application for a surveillance warrant of a Trump 2016 campaign aide. During that time, he became ‘hero’ among Trump’s allies. It was alleged that Patel acted as a back channel for Trump on Ukraine policy.

Kash Patel was part of Trump’s entourage during the latter’s visit to India in 2020 and was reported as one of the two Indian Americans by the media.

Patel had promoted several conspiracy theories on his podcasts and sold branded merchandise under the logotype ‘K$H.’ He is president and a board member of the Kash Foundation based in Virginia.

He also owns a firm Trishul, which provided national security, defense, and intelligence consulting for Qatar. He had no plans to divest himself Trishul, but had said that Trishul will remain dormant if he was appointed as Director of the FBI.

Is Patel a favourite?

Democrats have doubts about his qualifications and concerns he will do Donald Trump’s bidding and go after the President’s adversaries.

Patel has spoken of his desire to implement major changes at the FBI, including a reduced footprint at headquarters in Washington and a renewed emphasis on the bureau’s traditional crime-fighting duties rather than the intelligence-gathering and national security work that has come to define its mandate over the past two decades.

Kash Patel raised alarm among Democrats for saying before he was nominated that he would “come after” anti-Trump “conspirators” in the federal government and the media.

Republicans angry over what they see as law enforcement bias against conservatives during the Democratic Biden administration, as well as criminal investigations into Trump, have rallied behind Patel as the right person for the job.

Democrats complained about Patel’s lack of management experience compared with previous FBI Directors and they highlighted incendiary past statements that they said called his judgment into question.

About a half-dozen Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee gathered outside FBI headquarters in a last-ditch plea to derail his confirmation.

Two Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins voted with all Democrats against confirming Trump’s nominee.

Patel’s eyebrow-raising remarks on hundreds of podcasts and in other interviews over the past four years include referring to law enforcement officials who investigated Trump as “criminal gangsters,” saying some January 6 rioters were “political prisoners” and proposing to shut down the FBI headquarters and turning it into a museum for the so-called deep state.

Kash Patel’s predecessors

Patel took over as the ninth director of the agency, succeeding Christopher Wray for a stated tenure of 10 years, which, however, ended prematurely for both his immediate predecessors.

Wray resigned on Trump’s election two years short of his term and James Comey had barely completed four of his 10-year term after President Donald Trump fired him in 2017.

The first Indian American FBI Director will also be the first of Asian descent.