Trump Nominates Indian-Origin Loyalist Kash Patel As FBI Director

President-elect Trump has nominated Kash Patel to lead the FBI, aiming to restructure the agency.

Kashyap Patel, an Indian-origin Trump loyalist has been nominated to head the FBI.

Source : X

US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Indian-origin loyalist Kash Patel as the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to upend America's premier law enforcement agency and rid the government of perceived "conspirators." 

“I am proud to announce that Kashyap ‘Kash’ Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation," Trump said Saturday night in a post on Truth Social. 

“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 Republican President said. 

Trump said Patel "played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution." 

However, it remains unclear whether Patel's nomination will be confirmed, even by a Republican-led Senate, reported Associated Press. However, Trump has also raised the prospect of using recess appointments to push his selections through.

Patel would replace Christopher Wray as the FBI chief. Trump appointed Wray in 2017 but quickly lost favour with the president and his allies. 

While the term of an FBI director lasts 10 years, Wray's ouster was not unexpected given Trump's long-running public criticism of him and the FBI, including after a search of his Florida property for classified documents and two investigations that resulted in his indictment.

If carried out, Patel's past proposals would lead to convulsive change within the agency which is tasked to protect the country from terrorist attacks, foreign espionage, and other threats besides investigating violations of federal law. 

Patel has called for dramatically reducing the FBI's footprint, a perspective that dramatically sets him apart from earlier directors who have sought additional resources for the bureau. He has also suggested closing down the bureau's headquarters in Washington and “reopening it the next day as a museum of the deep state.”

He has also advocated aggressively hunting down government officials who leak information to reporters even though the Justice Department in 2021 halted the practice of secretly seizing reporters' phone records during leak investigations. Patel has called to change the law to make it easier to sue journalists.