President-elect Donald J. Trump turned to a firebrand loyalist to become director of the bureau, which he sees as part of a ‘deep state’ conspiracy against him.
By Bob Mery | Dec 01, 2024 Updated 02:58 a.m. ET
President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Saturday that he wants to replace Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, with Kash Patel, a hard-line critic of the bureau who has called for shutting down the agency’s Washington headquarters, firing its leadership and bringing the nation’s law enforcement agencies “to heel.”
Mr. Trump’s planned nomination of Mr. Patel has echoes of his failed attempt to place another partisan firebrand, Matt Gaetz, atop the Justice Department as attorney general. It could run into hurdles in the Senate, which will be called on to confirm him, and is sure to send shock waves through the F.B.I., which Mr. Trump and his allies have come to view as part of a “deep state” conspiracy against him.
Mr. Patel has been closely aligned with Mr. Trump’s belief that much of the nation’s law enforcement and national security establishment needs to be purged of bias and held accountable for what they see as unjustified investigations and prosecutions of Mr. Trump and his allies.
Mr. Patel “played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability and the Constitution,” Mr. Trump said in announcing his choice in a social media post.
He called Mr. Patel “a brilliant lawyer, investigator and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American people.”
Mr. Patel, a favorite of Mr. Trump’s political base, has worked as a federal prosecutor and a public defender, but has little of the law enforcement and management experience typical of F.B.I. directors.
He served in a series of administration positions at the tail end of Mr. Trump’s first term, including posts on the National Security Council and in the Pentagon. Before leaving office in early 2021, Mr. Trump floated the idea of making Mr. Patel deputy director of either the C.I.A. or the F.B.I. William P. Barr, the attorney general at the time, wrote in his memoir that Mr. Patel would have become deputy F.B.I. director only “over my dead body.”
The announcement also underscores Mr. Trump’s intense dislike of Mr. Wray, the current director, whose 10-year term does not expire until 2027. Mr. Trump appointed Mr. Wray to the job but soured on him within months, complaining to friends and allies that Mr. Wray was not running the agency the way he wanted.
Shortly after Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election, he called Mr. Wray and said that he was not going to fire him, even as he moved to dismiss other high-profile officials, like his defense secretary, Mark T. Esper.
But Mr. Trump, whose fury with the F.B.I. deepened after the agency executed a search warrant in August 2022 at his Florida club and home, Mar-a-Lago, in search of classified documents, suggested earlier this year that Mr. Wray resign. In declaring well before being sworn into office that he wants a new director, Mr. Trump was pushing Mr. Wray to resign before he is fired.
“This is firing the F.B.I. director,” said one law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
“It is extremely dangerous to have a change in an F.B.I. director just after a change in administration,” the official said, referring to the longstanding policy of keeping the cycle for appointments of a director separate from the presidential election cycle and partisan politics.
A statement released by the bureau following Mr. Trump’s announcement did not address whether Mr. Wray would step aside.
“Every day, the men and women of the F.B.I. continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats,” the statement said. “Director Wray’s focus remains on the men and women of the F.B.I., the people we do the work with and the people we do the work for.”
While a number of Mr. Trump’s allies expected him to announce a replacement for Mr. Wray, many did not believe he would ultimately select Mr. Patel, whose confirmation process before the Senate could be rigorous. Mr. Trump had at one point considered making Andrew Bailey, the Missouri attorney general, the F.B.I. director, according to two people briefed on the matter.
Natalie Bara, president of the F.B.I. Agents Association, did not directly address Mr. Trump’s selection of Mr. Patel, but said the group “is committed to preserving the bureau’s independence and effectiveness in protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution.”
Strong leadership, she said, “is critical to maintaining the integrity and mission of the F.B.I.,” and that agents’ commitment to upholding the law and protecting Americans “does not waver when there are changes in a presidential administration or if the leadership in the bureau changes.”
Current and former law enforcement officials have worried that a second Trump term would feature an assault on the independence and authority of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, and for many of them, Mr. Patel’s ascension to the director’s role would confirm the worst of those fears.
Mr. Patel laid out his vision for wreaking vengeance on the F.B.I. and Justice Department in a book, “Government Gangsters,” calling for clearing out the top ranks of the bureau, which he called “a threat to the people.” He also wrote a children’s book, “The Plot Against the King,” telling through fantasy the story of the investigations into Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign’s possible ties to Russians.
He has vowed to investigate and possibly prosecute journalistsonce he is back in government, adding that he would “follow the facts and the law.”
“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,” he said last year. “Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.”
In planning to remove Mr. Wray from atop the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, Mr. Trump would be echoing one of the most defining acts of his first term, his dismissal of James B. Comey as F.B.I. director as investigations of Trump associates began to heat up.
That act led to the appointment of the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who spent nearly two years examining the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia.
While Mr. Trump was out of office, Mr. Patel became enmeshed in one of the federal prosecutions of Mr. Trump directed by Jack Smith, the special counsel. He was called to testify before the grand jury hearing evidence about Mr. Trump’s possession of highly classified documents after leaving office, according to people familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a secret proceeding.
Mr. Patel’s testimony was sought to help prosecutors understand what defense, if any, Mr. Trump and his associates could offer that the former president might have declassified some of the material.
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