Balgarianovinite.com
President Donald Trump announced the nomination of Kash Patel as director of the FBI on Nov. 30, 2024, and the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced his candidacy Feb. 12, on a party-line vote. Patel has previously criticized the FBI and discussed taking punitive action against people who have opposed Trump.
The full Senate will consider his nomination in the coming weeks. Patel would replace former FBI Director Chris Wray, who was appointed during the first Trump administration and had three years remaining on his term but resigned after Trump tapped Patel.
Who is he?
Patel, 44, began his career as a public defender in Florida. He served as a national security prosecutor at the Department of Justice during the Obama administration and as a counterterrorism advisor in the Trump White House and chief of staff to the secretary of defense. Between executive branch jobs, he was senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he worked on investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections.
Patel left government after Trump’s first term, but remained tied to Trump as a member of the board of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social.
Follow the money:
- Patel is the founder of the Kash Foundation, whose mission is to support “educational and legal efforts needed to facilitate government transparency with the goal of creating a healthier relationship between the US federal government and American citizens.” Revenue grew from $182,256 in 2022 (its first year) to almost $1.3 million in 2023, most stemming from contributions. The nonprofit listed expenses of $523,733 for 2023, of which the majority was spent on advertising and promotion. It reported awarding $212,821 in grants, including $70,000 for “academic scholarships to young men and women, thousands of dollars of grants for financial and legal assistance for whistle- blowers, needy families and education,” though no awardees are mentioned on the website.
- The Kash Foundation paid more than $275,000 to One & Oh LLC, a company owned by Andrew Ollis, the vice president of the Kash Foundation, and from which Patel has received $3,600 in consulting fees. That payment was initially omitted from its tax filings until the organization filed a revised version. When asked about this payment, Patel stated that the money was used to pay a digital marketing company through One & Oh to raise money for “families in need.”
- The Kash Foundation gave “thousands of dollars” to “at least two ‘FBI whistleblowers’ who are helping House Republicans push disputed claims of politically-fueled corruption inside the Justice Department,” according to ABC news. The two whistleblowers confirmed having received money from Patel.
- Through Based Apparel, a company of which Patel is a managing member, the Kash Foundation sells Fight with K$H Hoodies, “government gangster playing cards” and “orange man bad steel wall art.” The website says that all profits from the sales “go to The Kash Foundation fund which supports whistleblowers, education, defamation cases, etc.” Patel also sells K$H wine, featuring Trump’s mugshot on the label, with prices ranging from $109 to $344.99 per bottle; $10 from the sale of each bottle is donated to the Kash Foundation.
- Patel wrote three children’s books, in which he portrays himself as a wizard who helps “King Donald”: “The Plot Against the King,” “The Plot Against the King: 2,000 Mules” and “The Plot Against the King 3: The Return of the King.” Copies signed by Patel (written “The Maga King!”) go for $59.99. According to Patel’s financial disclosure, combined royalties for the three books range from $45,000 to $200,000. The royalties for another book, “Government Gangsters,” are between $100,000 and $1 million.
- Patel reported income of over $2.1 million for consulting services through the firm Trishul, LLC, of which he is a managing member. He reported clients such as a Czech arms company, the embassy of Qatar, and a Russian filmmaker with ties to the Kremlin. Trishul received $145,000 for fundraising consulting for the Friends of Matt Gaetz PAC and almost $400,000 from Save America PAC. In 2022 the Trump Media & Technology Group signed a consultancy agreement with Trishul for which Patel received $130,000. He also received $800,000 worth of stock in the company, which were not reported in his financial disclosure.
- Patel serves as a director for VK Integrated Systems Inc., a weapons company, for which he received $8,000.
- Patel also owns shares in Elite Depot Ltd., the mother company of the Chinese online clothing brand Shein, worth between $1 million and $5 million. He serves as a consultant for the company as well. Patel said he will not divest if he becomes director of the FBI.
Why does it matter?
- Patel’s financial ties to Trump and past statements about potential prosecutions of the president’s opponents have raised concerns on the left about how he will lead the FBI.
- During a podcast in 2022 Patel said he agreed with “a lot” of things associated with the conspiracy movement known as QAnon, but he denied believing in QAnon theories during his confirmation hearing.
- During an episode of Steve Bannon’s “WarRoom” podcast, Patel said that he would “come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.” Patel later said it was a partial statement. During his confirmation hearing, he did not answer the question as to whether Biden had won the 2020 elections.
- In “Government Gangsters,” Patel describes how the “Deep State” can be “defeated.” The appendix of the book features a list of 60 people he declared “Members of Executive Branch Deep State,” some of whom were FBI employees (including Wray), as well as Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. During his confirmation hearing Patel said describing it as an enemies list was a “total mischaracterization.”
- Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, demanded a list of thousands of FBI agents who worked on investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, with the intent of finding those who “actively participated in what President Trump appropriately described as ‘a grave national injustice.’” The government agreed to not publicly reveal the names of the FBI employees after anonymous agents sued the Justice Department. The DOJ can still choose to break this agreement, if it gives two days’ notice.
- On Feb. 11, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) sent a letter to Michael Horowitz, the inspector general of the Justice Department, saying he received “credible information from multiple sources” that Patel is already secretly involved in firing FBI agents – even though he swore under oath not to do so.
This article is part of a series examining the role political money has played in the careers of President Donald Trump’s nominees for executive branch positions.
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