Patel was instrumental in drafting the Nunes memo in 2018, which alleged errors in the FBI application for a surveillance warrant of Trump's 2016 campaign aide. Following his departure from government service, Patel has espoused several conspiracy theories, including deep state in the United States, in his 2023 book Government Gangsters, which was praised by Trump.
After completing law school, Patel moved to Florida and was admitted as a member of the Florida Bar in April 2006.[2] He spent the next eight years as a public defender, first in the Miami-Dade County public defender's office and later as a federal public defender.[12][13] As a public defender he represented clients charged with felonies including international drug trafficking, murder, firearms violations, and bulk cash smuggling.[13][14]
Trial attorney with Justice Department (2014–2017 )
Senior aide to House Intelligence Committee chair, Nunes (2017–2018)
In April 2017, Patel became the senior committee aide to House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes.[16][17] Patel played a prominent role in the Republican opposition to the investigations into Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election.[17][18]
According to The New York Times, Patel was the primary author of the 2018 Nunes memo, alleging FBI misconduct in its application for a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) for electronic surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.[19] That claim was disputed by the committee's staff director, by a spokesman for Nunes, and by unattributed sources interviewed by India Abroad. Patel did not offer a public comment on the matter.[15]The New York Times opined that the memo was widely dismissed as "biased" containing "cherry-picked facts", but "it galvanized President Trump's allies and made Mr. Patel a hero among them."[20]
After Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in January 2019,[21] Patel worked for about a month as a senior counsel at the House Reform and Oversight Committee.[22]
Senior Director of Counterterrorism at National Security Council (NSC) (2019)
Patel was hired in February 2019 as a staffer for President Donald Trump's National Security Council (NSC), working in the International Organizations and Alliances directorate,[23] and in July 2019 became Senior Director of the Counterterrorism Directorate,[24] a new position created for him.[23] According to The Wall Street Journal, Patel led a secret mission to Damascus in early 2020 to negotiate the release of Majd Kamalmaz and journalist Austin Tice, both of whom were being held by the Syrian government.[12][25]
Some advisors, including John Bolton's associate Fiona Hill,[26] alleged that soon after joining NSC, Patel had assumed the role of an additional independent back channel for the President, while Patel was seen as underqualified for his portfolio, which covered the United Nations.[20][23] Advisors such as Hill, who had an uneasy relationship with President Trump,[26] raised red flags when Trump referred to Patel as "one of his top Ukraine policy specialists" and, as such, wished "to discuss related documents with him". Patel's actual assignment was counter-terrorism issues, rather than Ukraine. He was thought to have operated independently of Rudy Giuliani's irregular, informal channel. Impeachment inquiry witnesses were asked what they knew about Patel. Hill told investigators that it seems "Patel was improperly becoming involved in Ukraine policy and was sending information to Mr. Trump." Gordon Sondland and Kent testified they did not come across Patel in the course of their work.[20][failed verification]
In an October 2019 story, Politico, citing an anonymous source it reported had formerly worked at the White House, wrote that Patel had "unique access" to Trump and had provided "out of scope" advice to him on the United States' Ukraine policy.[23][27] Patel denied the claims and, the following month, sued Politico for defamation, seeking $25 million in damages.[27][c][needs update]
On December 3, 2019, the House Intelligence Committee's report included phone records, acquired via subpoenas to AT&T and/or Verizon, including a 25-minute phone call between Patel and Giuliani on May 10, 2019.[29]: 58 The call occurred after Giuliani and Patel attempted to call each other for several hours, and less than an hour after a call between Giuliani and Kurt Volker.[29]: 58 Five minutes after the 25-minute call between Giuliani and Patel, an unidentified phone number called Giuliani for over 17 minutes, after which Giuliani called his associate Lev Parnas for approximately 12 minutes.[29]: 58 In a statement to CBS News on December 4, 2019, Patel denied being part of Giuliani's Ukraine back-channel, saying he was "never a back channel to President Trump on Ukraine matters, at all, ever",[30] and that his call with Giuliani was "personal".[31]
Principal deputy with Director of National Intelligence (2020)
Foreign Policy magazine connected the move to Trump's "refusal to accept the election results".[37] Based on interviews with defense experts, Alex Ward of Vox suggested that Patel's appointment was "not sinister", would "not change much", and may have served an effort to accelerate the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.[38] According to an unnamed source quoted by Vanity Fair, Miller was a "front man" during his time as Acting Secretary of Defense while Patel and Cohen-Watnick were "calling the shots" at the Department of Defense.[39] Another source told the magazine that Patel was the most influential person in the U.S. government on matters of national security.[39]
Trump proposed Patel as a potential leader for either the FBI or CIA in early 2021 following the 2020 United States presidential election. Trump had considered installing Patel as either CIA deputy director or acting director, which would have required firing the existing director Gina Haspel.[41] This proposal faced significant resistance, including from Attorney General William Barr, who wrote in his memoir that Patel would become FBI director only "over his dead body".[42][39][41] In his last weeks in office, Trump planned to appoint Patel as CIA Deputy Director, replacing Vaughn Bishop but interventions from Vice President Mike Pence and White House counsel Pat Cipollone stopped that.[41]
Post-government activities (2020–2024)
Patel has widely been described by news organizations as a "Trump loyalist".[18][16][43] Since 2020, Patel has invoked his association with Donald Trump into "enterprises he promotes under the logotype 'K$H'".[9] In April 2022, Patel became a member of the board of directors for the Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of the Truth Social media platform.[44] Patel promoted multiple pro-Trump conspiracy theories and appeared on far-right podcasts such as Stew Peters and co-hosted a talkshow on The Epoch Times. Patel also sold branded merchandise such as supplements that he says detoxifies the body of the negative effects COVID-19 vaccines.[45]
On June 19, 2022, Trump sent a letter to the National Archives naming Patel and John Solomon as "representatives for access to Presidential records of my administration".[51] In 2022, Patel created Fight With Kash, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity, to raise donations for "helping other people" in need, though more specifically to bring "America First patriots" together and "helping fight the Deep State". Patel said he "funded whistleblowers campaigns", which Democrats on the Republican-controlled House Judiciary weaponization subcommittee said included former FBI employees the FBI claimed endorse "an alarming series of conspiracy theories related to the January 6 Capitol attack ... and the validity of the 2020 election". During a December 2023 appearance on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast, Patel concurred with Bannon's assertions that Donald Trump is "dead serious" about his intent to seek revenge against his political enemies should he be elected in 2024. Patel stated:
"We will go out and find the conspirators — not just in government, but in the media ... 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. Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice, and Steve, this is why they hate us. This is why we're tyrannical. This is why we're dictators ... Because we're actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have."[52]
Patel's remarks came during concurrent reporting in The New York Times about "a series of plans by Mr. Trump and his allies that would upend core elements of American governance, democracy, foreign policy and the rule of law if he regained the White House". Axios reported days later that Patel was being considered for a top national security position in a second Trump administration.[52][53][54]
In December 2024, The New York Times reported that Patel had made several misleading claims about his role in the 2012 Benghazi attack investigation while at the Department of Justice. According to current and former law enforcement officials interviewed by the Times, Patel overstated his importance in the investigation and distorted the department's broader efforts. While Patel claimed he was "leading the prosecution's efforts at Main Justice", officials said he held a junior position in the counterterrorism section supporting the investigation, which was run by prosecutors at the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, D.C. along with FBI agents and analysts.[55]
The Times also reported that Patel's claims about the prosecution of Ahmed Abu Khattala were inaccurate. While Patel suggested Khattala would be released from prison before the 2028 election, Khattala was actually sentenced to 28 years in prison in September 2024 after an appeals court ruled his original 22-year sentence was too low.[55]
Involvement in Trump documents investigation (2021 - 2022)
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) found in 2021 that Trump had taken presidential documents with him to his home in Florida after leaving office. After Trump returned some documents, NARA found others were still missing, including some that were highly classified. NARA referred the matter to the FBI, and after requests and a subpoena to return the documents went unheeded, the FBI entered Trump's home under a search warrant to retrieve them. Patel publicly asserted that Trump had declassified broad sets of sensitive documents before leaving the White House. In October 2022, Patel was summoned to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the matter, but he declined to answer questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Patel was represented in the matter by lawyer Stanley Woodward.[56][57] The Justice Department sought unsuccessfully to persuade a federal judge to compel Patel's testimony. Justice Department prosecutors granted him limited immunity from prosecution, after which Patel testified on November 4, 2022.[57][58]
Nomination as Director of the FBI
In November 2024, Trump nominated Patel as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to succeed Christopher A. Wray.[59] If confirmed, Patel would be the FBI's 9th Director and its first Indian American leader, as well as its youngest director.[60] Trump cited Patel's role in "uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax" and his advocacy for "truth, accountability and the Constitution" in announcing the nomination.[59]
Following his nomination, Patel was targeted by Iranian hackers, who accessed some of his communications.[61]
Patel has expanded on his view of a deep state in the United States in his 2023 book Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, which Trump praised as a "roadmap to end the Deep State's reign".[62][64]
Patel has actively promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory. On Truth Social, Patel promoted an account with the handle @Q, which distributed messages related to the conspiratorial movement. According to Media Matters, Patel has shared an image featuring a flaming Q on it and has gone on multiple Qanon shows in order to urge members to join Truth Social.[63] Patel said in 2022 that Truth Social was trying to adopt Qanon "into our overall messaging scheme to capture audiences", and that the figurehead of the Qanon movement "should get credit for all the things he has accomplished".[65][67] Patel has appeared on multiple far-right podcasts promoting conspiracy theories such as on Stew Peters, and appeared over 50 times in at least a dozen podcasts that have promoted the QAnon movement.[45]
Patel has signed ten copies of his children's book about "King Donald" with the Qanon motto "WWG1WGA" ("where we go one, we go all"). He has also promoted the #WWG1WGAhashtag on Truth Social.[63][68] Also on Truth Social, Patel has promoted the use of pills that, he said, reversed the effects of COVID-19 vaccines.[6][69]
Personal life
Patel resides in Washington, D.C.[13] He plays ice hockey[14] and is a fan of the sport.[70] In 2014, according to the legal website Above the Law, Patel agreed to participate in a so-called bachelor auction of "very handsome lawyers" to benefit Switchboard of Miami, a social services organization.[71] He later withdrew from the auction after noting that his Florida bar status was inactive at that time.[2][72] Patel has been a regular guest on several podcasts including those hosted by Tim Pool and Benny Johnson, among others.[70]
Notes
^Appointment after Senate confirmation for this position.
^According to The New York Times, Patel was the primary author of the Nunes memo, but that claim was disputed by the committee's staff director, by a spokesman for Nunes, and by unattributed sources interviewed by India Abroad.[15] Patel did not offer a public comment on the matter.[15]
^ abc"Who is Kash Patel, the Trump loyalist tapped to run the FBI?". What do we know about Kash Patel? Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel, commonly known as Kash, was born in the city of New York, a child of immigrant parents originally from the Indian state of Gujarat.
^ abcde"Kashyap Patel, The Florida Bar Member Profile". The Florida bar. April 20, 2006. Retrieved December 7, 2024. The Florida Bar Member profile Name: Kashyap Pramod Patel Admitted: 04/20/2006 Elected status: Inactive
^ abSuderman, Alan; Linderman, Juliet (July 9, 2024). "Kash Patel is pushing conspiracies and his brand. He's poised to help lead a Trump administration". The Associated Press. Many who worked with Patel before he joined the Trump administration said he was an ambitious if not exceptional lawyer whose quick rise and far-right tilt have left them stunned .. A trusted aide and swaggering campaign surrogate who mythologizes the former president while promoting conspiracy theories and his own brand.
^ abDel Rey, Michelle (November 30, 2024). "Trump picks MAGA loyalist Kash Patel as his new FBI director". The Independent. Retrieved December 12, 2024. A conspiracy theorist who wants to restrain federal law enforcement agencies, Patel has advocated for firing workers and going on a prosecution spree to fulfill Trump's promise of retribution.