Kash Patel

Kashyap Pramod Patel born February 25 1980 is an American lawyer serving since 2025 as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Patel also served as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives from February to April 2025 Patel studied criminal justice and history at the University of Richmond and graduated from the Pace University School of Law In 2005 he began working as a public defender in MiamiDade County Florida and later as a federal public defender for the Southern District of Florida Patel worked as a staff member at the Department of Justice from 2012 to 2017 he then left the department and became a senior aide to Devin Nunes the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Patel was the primary author of the Nunes memo alleging that Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI officials abused their authority in the FBI investigation into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials In February 2019 Patel joined the National Security Councils International Organizations and Alliances directorate In 2020 he became the principal deputy director of national intelligence until May when he returned to the National Security Council In November after President Donald Trump dismissed Mark Esper as secretary of defense Patel was named as the chief of staff to acting secretary of defense Christopher C Miller After Trump left office in January 2021 Patel leveraged his association with Trump to promote several business ventures and made recurring appearances on several podcasts In April 2022 he was named to the board of Trump Media Technology Group Also that year he published a childrens book about the Steele dossier and with John Solomon was appointed to represent Trump before the National Archives and Records Administration the FBI questioned Patel about his involvement in Trumps records He founded The Kash Foundation a charity to help participants in the January 6 United States Capitol attack pay legal costs Patel has promoted several conspiracy theories about the deep state false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election QAnon and the January 6 Capitol attack On December 11 2024 Christopher Wray announced that he would resign at the end of Joe Bidens presidency on January 20 2025 Patel appeared before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary in January 2025 He was confirmed by the Senate in February Shortly thereafter he was named as the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives but by April he was replaced Patel is the first person of South Asian descent to serve as FBI director Description above from the Wikipedia article Kash Patel licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia