Kash Patel

Announced as Trump’s nominee for Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Kash Patel was senior advisor to Trump’s Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grennell, and chief of staff to Trump’s Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller. A key Trump loyalist, Patel has called for coming “after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.” Per the AP, Patel has also made it “clear that he is in lockstep with [Trump]… including purging government officials deemed disloyal.” During his time in government, Patel and his close ally, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, were referred to in some corners of the Pentagon as zampolit, a Soviet term for political enforcers embedded in certain positions to ensure loyalty to the Kremlin. Following Trump’s first administration, Patel was a Senior Fellow for National Security and Intelligence at Russ Vought’s Center for Renewing America, a Project 2025 Advisory Board member.

Patel joined the National Security Council in February 2019, and shortly thereafter was promoted to a senior counterterrorism role. In early 2020, Patel moved to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees all 17 intelligence agencies. As the Principal Deputy to Acting Director Ric Grenell, Patel briefed Trump daily. Later that year, Trump named Patel Chief of Staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller. In that role, Miller said Patel had “very good access to [Trump],” describing Patel as “a wingman, a teammate with me that could protect the political flank.”

In this position, Patel was front-and-center during the January 6^th insurrection, claiming to have had authority from Trump to call in whatever forces necessary to quell the violence: “We had all the authorizations… I was talking to [Trump’s chief of staff, Mark] Meadows, nonstop that day.” In his testimony in the Colorado 14th Amendment hearings over whether Trump could be removed from the 2024 presidential ballot, Patel contradicted Miller’s January 6th Committee testimony and a Pentagon statement that said, “Trump had authority and responsibility to direct deployment of the National Guard in the District of Columbia, but never gave any order to deploy the National Guard on January 6th or on any other day.” Patel attempted to lay to blame for the delayed calls for the National Guard on D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

During the transition prior to Biden’s inauguration, Patel was one of the controlling figures for the Biden team’s access, preventing career officials and experts from sharing important information concerning defense issues to the transition team, to handing over control to political appointees. One former official claimed Patel “told everybody we’re not going to cooperate with the transition team” and put “a lot of restrictions on it.”

In the final weeks of his presidency, Trump reportedly tried to install Patel as the Deputy Director of the CIA in an ill-conceived plan to force out then-Director Gina Haspel. The specter of “a political mercenary” without agency experience in such a position stunned national security officials, and was opposed by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.

Patel has repeatedly invoked the “Deep State” in his political rhetoric. In December 2023, on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Patel continued espousing the Big Lie, saying, “We will go out and find the conspirators—not just in government, but in media.” He continued, “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. W hether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.”Patel also said that Trump 2.0 would be different: “the one thing we learned in the… first go-around, is we got to put in all American patriots, top to bottom, and we got them for law enforcement. We got them for intel collection, we got them for offensive operations. We got them for [Department of Defense], CIA, everywhere.” During Trump’s first term, Patel argued that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was disloyal for not deploying the military during racial justice protests.

In May 2022, Patel backed up Trump’s claim that Trump declassified some documents in the last days of his term, asserting that he was present when Trump did so. In November 2022, the New York Times reported that Patel was offered a grant of immunity from federal prosecutors in an attempt to force his testimony in connection with the Mar-a-lago documents case, which Patel was withholding by invoking the right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment.

On March 21, 2024, Patel went on the Armstrong WIlliams Show to say that he doesn’t believe any of the charges that Trump is facing have any form of legitimacy. On May 20th, 2024, Patel joined a “phalanx of supporters” in attendance at Trump’s New York trial. Patel told the press: “after six weeks of [an] unconstitutional trial we have finally found a crime. Michael Cohen admitted … [to] stealing Donald Trump’s money… We also have a victim… Donald J. Trump.” On May 30, 2024, the jury, per the AP, found Trump “guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.”

After Trump left the White House, Patel became a board member of Trump Media, although he was reportedly not a salaried employee. An SEC filing revealed Patel was paid $130,000 for consulting in 2022 but does not own shares. Patel has also been paid as a consultant for one of Trump’s political action committees, earning $15,000 a month in the role. During the 2024 campaign, he was a trusted aide and campaign surrogate of Donald Trump.

After leaving the Trump administration, Patel formed the Kash Foundation, dubbed “Fight with Kash,” a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Patel said the nonprofit gave more than $50,000 in “grants” to “whistleblower campaigns”. The organization has also sold merchandise like a “government gangster” card deck for $19.99, a pair of “K$H” socks with the Punisher logo for $25, and a tumbler with “liberal tears” for $30. In April 2024, his nonprofit claimed to have reached a “milestone” of having distributed more than $500,000 in grants.

The Kash Foundation described its mission as supporting “educational and legal efforts needed to facilitate government transparency … .” The Foundation reportedly paid “whistleblowers,” including two who claimed to have evidence that the “FBI improperly conducted its January 6 investigation.” Notably, two of the “whistleblowers” also confirmed that Patel gave them financial support. Patel even helped promote one of their forthcoming books. A congressional report compiled by House Democrats asserts that based on the evidence it reviewed, “there is a strong likelihood that Kash Patel is encouraging witnesses to continue pursuing their meritless claims, and it is in fact using them to help propel his vendetta against the F.B.I., Justice Department, and Biden administration on behalf of himself and President Trump.”

Patel also promotes his illustrated children’s book depicting Trump as royalty, called “The Plot Against the King.” The book tells the story of a wizard named Kash who attempts to expose a plot against “King Donald” that was planned by the wicked “Hillary Queenton.” Trump said he wanted to see the book in every school in America. Patel hawks that book for $59.99 signed by him with the words “The MAGA King,” along with selling a second volume “The Plot Against the King: 2000 Mules,” an apparent reference to the discredited stolen election claims of Dinesh D’Souza, who pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions in other people’s names and whom Trump later pardoned.

Patel was also a Senior Fellow for National Security and Intelligence at The Center for Renewing America.As a fellow in February 2023, Patel has urged “robust automatic declassification” of secret documents, granting non-career cabinet officials plenary authority to declassify documents, and giving default access to classified documents to other presidential appointees, such as the White House chief of staff and director of the OMB.

Before joining the Trump administration, Patel was the National Security Advisor and Senior Counsel for Chair Devin Nunes on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he managed Nunes’ efforts to challenge allegations that the Trump team had improper contact with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign. Patel is credited as the main author of the Nunes Memo released to the public through the House Intelligence Committee that accused federal officials of bias against President Trump. The FBI, helmed by Trump-appointee Christopher Wray, issued a rare statement critical of congressional actions, stating that there were “grave concerns” about the accuracy of the Nunes Memo. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in a statement said, “ It is possible to create a false narrative from a trove of classified information, either by selectively declassifying misleading tidbits of material or by suggesting misdeeds that can’t be disproved without revealing classified information. The shield of classification becomes a sword of deception.”

WHAT DOES PROJECT 2025 SAY ABOUT THE FBI AND DOJ

THE POLICIES

– Terminate all FBI investigations/activities into Russian collusion, MAGA operatives, January 6th suspects, Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) violations, and more.

– Curtail the independence of the FBI, including by eliminating the agency’s General Counsel’s Office and pushing Congress to end the 10-year term for the FBI Director in order to make the FBI Director dependent on the President’s approval–abandoning a key Nixon-era reform.

– Pursue “legal action” against local District Attorneys and officials that the Administration claims are “refusing to prosecute criminal offenses in their jurisdictions.”

– Expand the investigation of leaks, including using powerful tools to identify records of unauthorized disclosures to the media.

PRECEDING CONTEXT FOR PROJECT 2025

– Trump tried to weaponize DOJ to overturn the 2020 election. Per CNN: “Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Trump’s attempted coup was how he relentlessly tried to weaponize the Justice Department to nullify President Joe Biden’s victory. The Democratic-run Senate Judiciary Committee investigated Trump’s conduct and concluded in a recent report that he ‘grossly abused the power of the presidency.’”

– Throughout his Presidency, Trump repeatedly called to prosecute his opponents. As reported in Vox: “He told Hillary Clinton that once he won, she’d be ‘in jail.’ He said that John Kerry ‘should be prosecuted.’ He wants Adam Schiff ‘questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason.’ John Bolton, he says, should be ‘in jail, money seized.’ James Comey should face ‘years in jail.’” In July 2024, Trump also amplified social posts calling for televised military tribunals of Liz Cheney.

HOW ARE THESE POLICIES POSSIBLE?

– The President largely controls DOJ through the Attorney General, who is removable by the President without cause. DOJ could try to take legal action against local District Attorneys but would likely face challenges.

– Any sense of DOJ’s independence has resulted from presidents following norms that Trump began to unravel and could continue to erode.

– Federal and local prosecutorial discretion (the ability of prosecutors and law enforcement to exercise judgment in which cases and violations to pursue) is a bedrock principle that Trump could deploy to punish those he dislikes and favor what he prefers.