US President-elect Donald Trump has picked a former aide, Kash Patel, to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an agency Patel has often criticised.
A former US defence department chief of staff in the first Trump administration, Patel has been a steadfast supporter of the incoming Republican president.
Separately, Trump said Saturday that he plans to nominate Chad Chronister, sheriff of Florida’s Hillsborough County, as head of the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Patel and Chronister join Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi in filling out Trump’s law enforcement picks.
Trump also announced the nomination of Charles Kushner as US ambassador to France on Saturday.
All three choices will have to be confirmed by a majority vote in the US Senate.
Patel is Trump loyalist who shares the president-elect’s suspicion of government institutions.
“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice, and protecting the American people,” Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform, adding that Patel was “an advocate for truth, accountability, and the constitution”.
His past proposals have included “dramatically” limiting the FBI’s authority. In his memoir, Government Gangsters, Patel called for an eradication of what he called “government tyranny” within the FBI by firing “the top ranks”.
Patel would replace current FBI director Christopher Wray, who Trump appointed in 2017 for 10-year term.
But Wray fell out of favor with the president elect when the FBI assisted with a federal probe into Trump’s handling of classified records, a case that has since been dropped.
Wray would either need to resign or be fired by Trump to make room for Patel, though Trump made no mention of Wray in his social media posts Saturday.
In a statement following Trump’s announcement, the FBI said: “Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats.
“Director Wray’s focus remains on the men and women of the FBI, the people we do the work with, and the people we do the work for.”
The son of Indian immigrants, Patel is a former defence lawyer and federal prosecutor who caught Trump’s eye after he became a senior counsel to the House of Representatives intelligence committee in 2017.
He was hired by Trump as a national security aide in 2019 and a year later was appointed chief of staff to the head of the Pentagon.
As well as his 2023 memoir, he has published two pro-Trump children’s books.
One of the titles, The Plot Against the King, features a villain, Hillary Queenton, trying to depose King Donald, who is aided by a wizard called Kash the Distinguished Discoverer.
Another villain is called Keeper Komey – a thinly-veiled reference to former FBI Director James Comey – and his “spying slugs”, according to the book’s blurb.
Patel has often railed against the so-called “deep state”, which some Americans believe is an unelected bureaucratic machine that secretly runs the country for sinister purposes.
Patel has also excoriated the media, which he has called “the most powerful enemy the United States has ever seen”.
He is also on the board of Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns the incoming president’s social media platform Truth Social.
Patel reportedly has had a consulting contract with the company that paid him at least $120,000 a year.
Chronister also comes with a long background in law enforcement. He has worked in law enforcement in Florida for 32 years, according to his official bio, and he has served as the top law enforcement officer in Hillsborough County, Florida, since 2017.
On social media, Trump praised Chronister’s experience and reiterated his focus on drugs and the US border.
“As DEA Administrator, Chad will work with our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to secure the border, stop the flow of fentanyl, and other illegal drugs, across the southern border, and SAVE LIVES”, Trump wrote.
