Garden City High School graduate Kash Patel was described as an unqualified conspiracy theorist and a brilliant investigator seeking accountability before he was confirmed on Feb. 21 as the new FBI director.
The U.S. Senate voted 51-49 to confirm Patel’s nomination, with two Republicans joining 45 Democrats and two independents in opposition, following a contentious confirmation process that included one senator accusing the nation’s new top cop of possibly committing perjury.
“The American people deserve an FBI that is transparent, accountable, and committed to justice,” Patel said in a statement upon his confirmation. “The politicization of our justice system has eroded the public trust — but that ends today.”
Patel replaces former FBI Director Christopher Wray, who President Donald Trump had appointed during his first term in 2017 and resigned Jan. 19, one day before Trump’s second term began.
The day before the vote, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) alleged Patel had lied under oath during the confirmation process when Patel denied claims that he was helping purge the FBI of agents who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
“When asked about the possible firings of career FBI officials at his confirmation hearing, Mr. Patel, under oath, said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on right now’ at the FBI,” Durbin said. “That’s not true. Thanks to multiple brave whistleblowers, we now know that Mr. Patel likely committed perjury in making that statement.”
Erica Knight, Patel’s spokeswoman, called the allegations “second-hand gossip” and maintained that Patel “has been fully transparent with the American people throughout this process and has demonstrated the integrity and leadership needed for this role.”
In his 2023 book “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” Patel wrote that he became interested in studying law while speaking with attorneys he caddied for at the Garden City Golf Club. He later served as a defense attorney, federal prosecutor, and eventually worked for former U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). Patel was widely credited with having a key role in writing the Nunes memo that questioned the legitimacy of the FBI’s evidence used at the start of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Patel later worked in Trump’s administration during his first term and also penned “The Plot Against the King,” a series of politically themed children’s books.
Critics have suggested that Patel’s 2023 book indicates he plans to use his new FBI leadership role to exact revenge against the president’s opponents, which he has also publicly stated he plans to do — although he downplayed that stance during the confirmation hearings.
“We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” Patel told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast in 2023. “We’re going to come after you. Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.”
In addition to questioning the outcome of the elections, suggesting deep state political operatives are plotting against the president, and calling the Jan. 6 rioters “political prisoners,” he has also posted in support of QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory that claims Trump is waging a behind-the-scenes war against elitist global child sex trafficking by Satanist cannibal pedophiles.
Among his first orders of business was to reassign thousands of FBI agents from its headquarters to field offices nationwide. He was also sworn in on Feb. 24 as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, overseeing an agency with another 5,000 employees in addition to the more than 10,000 staffers at the FBI.
The leaders of the Nassau and Suffolk Police Benevolent Associations — the unions that represent thousands of rank-and-file officers on Long Island — issued statements in support of Patel’s nomination. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Trump ally, congratulated Patel’s confirmation on social media.
He wrote: “Kash’s journey from Long Island to leading the nation’s premier law enforcement agency is truly inspiring. We wish him success as he steps into this pivotal role.”
