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The WHO: Kash patel
Patel is a former public defender, federal prosecutor and veteran of Trump’s first administration. He is also a cruel critic of the Ministry of Justice and the FBI.
Nominated for: Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, part of the Ministry of Justice
What does this role do: The director runs the FBI, who is the leading agency for the law enforcement of the United States, and over 35,000 people who work there. The FBI is investigating federal crimes, everything from terrorism and violence to civil rights and public corruption.
Watch the Senate Senate’s hearing before the Senate Judicial Committee, which will start on Thursday at 9:30 am ET:
In less than a decade, Kash Patel has risen to a large extent an unknown assistant to Congress to become a magnificent match. He has occupied high jobs for national security, selling self -made goods online and wrote a children’s book called The plot against the KingWith the participation of a magician named Kash and King named Donald.
Patel is already the election of President Trump to lead the FBI, the leading agency for law enforcement in the country, which is responsible for everything – from the grip of terrorists and spies to investigation into cyberattacks and public corruption.
On Thursday, Patel will appear before the Senate Committee of the Judiciary, where the Democrats are expected to press him to their qualifications to lead the desk and whether he can – or even wants – to maintain the traditional independence of the FBI of the White House.
These issues are fed by Patel’s fierce loyalty, but also by the long list of Patel’s own past statements to root the “deep state” and study after Trump’s perceived enemies, including the FBI, in the Ministry of Justice and in the media.
These comments are also associated with Trump’s own statements during the presidential campaign to seek revenge against his opponents.
The Republicans who hold the majority in the Senate are largely supported by Patel’s nomination and he can only win confirmation with the support of GOP, still losing three Republican votes.
The president and his supporters accuse the FBI and the Ministry of Justice of being weapons in recent years against conservatives, and they view Patel as someone who will put the FBI on the right course.
The Ministry of Justice of Biden rejected these allegations, noting that prosecutors had filed cases against President Biden’s own son, as well as powerful democratic members of the congress.
Patel’s rise
The work of the FBI Director comes with a 10-year term, although none of Patel’s immediate predecessors serve this full term. Trump fired James Komi in 2017 and replaced him with Christopher Urai.
After winning the election in 2024, he made it clear that Urai would not be allowed to stay and nominate Patel to replace him. Urai left before taking office of Trump.
Patel’s summary is not typical of the FBI director. Wray, for example, was heading the criminal ward at the Ministry of Justice, while Komi was previously an American lawyer in Manhattan and as Deputy Prosecutor General, Work # 2 in the department.
In contrast, Patel worked as a public defender in Florida before working as a prosecutor in the National Security Department of the Ministry of Justice for several years.
In 2017, he moved to the Chamber Intelligence Committee, where he was the main assistant to the best republican of the panel, reporter Devin Nunes from California. It was here that Patel drew attention to assisting investigators who were researching possible links between the Trump and Russia campaign during the 2016 election.
His efforts raised questions about the failures of the FBI’s work on the probe, and this was made by Pavel a hero among Trump’s supporters. This also helped him hire a Trump National Security Council and later as a major assistant to the director of national intelligence and the Secretary of Defense.
Towards the end of the first Trump administration, the president tried to install a senior position in the CIA and the FBI, but retreated to the opposition of senior leaders at the Ministry of Justice, Congress and elsewhere.
After losing the 2020 election, Patel became a frequent guest in the right podcasts.
It was in those episodes of Podkast Patel that he made many of his controversial statements. He focused on what he calls the deep state he regarded as people in the senior roles of national security, which he claims to have armed the justice system and intelligence agencies and pose a threat to democracy.
In one appearance in the podcast of Sean Ryan, Patel swore to close the FBI plant in Washington, Colombia County, “at 1 day and to reoperate the next day as a Museum of the Deep State.”
“And I would take 7,000 employees who work in this building and send them to America to chase criminals,” he added. “Go to be cops. You are cops – go to cops. Go chase killers and rapes and drug dealers and abusers.”
He also wrote a book called Government gangsters This includes a list of deep state participants that Patel’s critics described as a list of enemies.
All this creates what can be a tense hearing to confirm.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat of Connecticut and a member of the Senate Committee of the Judiciary, called Patel “unskilled and unprepared” to lead the FBI.
“Anyone who has a list of enemies who would be a target for retribution, anyone who wants to close the FBI here in Washington, anyone who wants to purify an agency that has to investigate impartially and objectively is unfit for this job”, ” Blumethal said.
Bloamal said he met Patel before hearing and pressed him to his statements about the use of the FBI as a political weapon. He said Patel responded with “completely insurmountable assurances.”
“What he suggested in these vague assurances – was” Oh, I would never do something like that ” – but he said he would do just that, so he would have to explain,” Bloamal said.
Meanwhile, Republicans seem to have returned to Patel’s nomination.
Senator John Cornin, R-Texas, who also met with Patel to discuss his potential confirmation, admitted that some of Patel’s past statements may be controversial for some people.
“Obviously, Kash was dealing with a lot of political rhetoric, and I think he understands the difference between it and actually did the work in Doj and the FBI,” Cornin said. “And I think the FBI needs a course adjustment and it is certainly able to do this.”
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