Fate of FBI Up in the Air After Trump Picks Enemy of the Agency to Lead It

There was a question as to whether or not President-elect Donald Trump was going to have, shall we say, a certain sort of male procreative fortitude to put Kash Patel out there as a nominee for FBI Director.

Earlier in the month, for instance, reports out of the transition team were that the Trump insider was likely being favored for CIA director instead of heading the FBI — because, as Politico put it, that role “does not require Senate confirmation — a concern for other roles, like FBI director, Patel is said to be interested in.”

And there’s a reason why friends of permanent Washington, including Republicans, might not vote to confirm Patel: He’s the guy, as CNN pointed out, who wrote that “members of the unelected bureaucracy,” including the media and Big Tech, are “the most dangerous threat to our democracy.”

And we had an FBI director still serving out the tail-end of a 10-year term: Christopher Wray, a man who is anything but forthcoming about how the bureau does business, which is why he’s agreeable to Democrats.

Well, it turns out that the president-elect does have the cojones to roll the dice on congressional approval — because, on Saturday, Trump announced he was nominating Patel to FBI director in what Axios described as “a massive middle finger to the intelligence community.”

“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 said in a statement.

“This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border. Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI.”

Patel, who is the child of immigrants from India, began his time in Washington as a Department of Justice prosecutor before moving onto the National Security Council. He came to the attention of the Trump White House in 2018 when he was working as an aide for Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

Patel, as The Associated Press noted, helped Nunes author a four-page memo regarding the Steele dossier, the Mueller investigation, the Russiagate hoax and FBI misconduct in all three — a document which was derided and lambasted by Democrats but ended up being largely, perhaps even wholly, factual.

The one quote that the media is going to put on repeat for the next 24 to 72 hours is going to be this one, from a 2023 interview on Steve Bannon’s podcast, in which Patel said the DOJ under Trump should “come after” those who had deliberately helped spread falsehoods.

“We’ve got to put in all-American patriots top to bottom,” Patel said regarding the Justice Department, people who “will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media … Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections – we’re going to come after you.”

However, the one quote that you should be hearing is this one, regarding Patel’s plans for his first day on the job if he were director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“I’d shut down the FBI Hoover Building [in Washington, D.C.] on day one and reopen the next day as a museum of the deep state,” he said.

“And I’d take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals.”

BREAKING: According to Steve Bannon, President Trump will name Kash Patel as his FBI Director

Kash Patel is a total savage. His plans for the FBI are magnificent.

“I’d shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen the next day as a museum of the deep state. And I’d… pic.twitter.com/Q97RzHwSoo

— George (@BehizyTweets) November 18, 2024

Now, that’s certainly one way to get their attention, now, isn’t it?

But if this is a day one blueprint too bold to carry out, it’s also a step in the right direction. Trump’s former national security advisor, John Bolton, compared Patel to a Soviet secret police officer and said, “The Senate should reject this nomination 100-0.”

Except that’s the thing: This is John Bolton, professor emeritus of the deep state, and his version of what the FBI should look like is a smiley-faced version of the Soviet secret police. The FBI has become less a federal investigative unit and more of a centralized locus of official state power in the Babylon of power-lust, the District of Columbia.

From targeting parents’ groups and pro-life protesters to the Russiagate debacle and the attempt to kneecap the first Trump administration, the Bureau has become something out of Oliver Stone’s worst fever dreams. It’s not just going to take firing Chris Wray and replacing him with a Chris Wray cover act to start making meaningful changes.

Maybe Patel doesn’t get the votes. However, you have to say this much: In picking him, the 47th president-to-be showed America that, yes, he’s going to have that particular fortitude. If you want to fight him, do your worst.

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