ICYMI: Who is Kash Patel? 7 Things You Need to Know About Trump’s Dangerous Pick for FBI Director
Meet the unqualified, right-wing sycophant who could soon be in charge of America’s top domestic intelligence and law enforcement agency.
Confirmation hearings for the new Trump administration are well underway. And while names like Pete Hegseth and RFK Jr. dominate the news cycle, Zeteo is here to shine light on a lesser-known, yet equally insane pick: Kash Patel.
From his glaring lack of experience to literally being a grifter, Kash Patel has largely flown under the radar in mainstream media’s coverage of the new Trump administration.
So, as Kash Patel testifies at his Senate confirmation hearing today, here’s a look at a story we ran back in December: “7 Things You Need to Know About Kash Patel, Trump’s Dangerous Pick for FBI Director.”
1. He Lacks Qualifications and Experience
The 44-year-old Kashyap “Kash” Patel is a former public defender and federal prosecutor who has risen through the ranks of the MAGA world at astonishing speed: He went from staffer on the House Intelligence Committee, to deputy director of national intelligence, to chief of staff for the acting defense secretary, in less than four years. He didn’t have any relevant qualifications for any of those posts – other than blind loyalty to Trump and an obsession with undermining the Russia investigation into the then-Republican president. “Each new title set off new alarms,” to quote from a wide-ranging profile of Patel in the Atlantic in October.
In 2020, when Trump tried to install Patel at the FBI as deputy director, Trump’s own ultra-conservative Attorney General Bill Barr opposed the move and later wrote in his memoir that Patel “had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency… The very idea of moving Patel into a role like this showed a shocking detachment from reality.”
Barr said he told then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that Patel would be appointed to the FBI deputy director’s post “over my dead body.”
2. He Was Blocked at the CIA
In December 2020, after losing the election but trying to cling to power, Trump attempted to appoint Patel to a senior position at the CIA. Then-CIA Director Gina Haspel threatened to resign if Trump went through with it. She knew how ludicrous and dangerous such an appointment would be. Then-Vice President Mike Pence and then-White House Counsel Pat Cipollone also intervened to stop Trump from making Patel the deputy director at the CIA. They, too, knew how ludicrous and dangerous such an appointment would be.
Four years later, Haspel, Pence, and Cippolone are no longer on the scene. And Patel is heading for the top job at the FBI.