WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday said he wanted former National Security official and firebrand loyalist Kash Patel to lead the FBI, signaling an intent to drive out the bureau’s current director, Christopher Wray.
Patel, who during Trump’s first term advised both the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense, has previously called for stripping the FBI of its intelligence-gathering role and purging its ranks of any employee who refuses to support Trump’s agenda.
“The biggest problem the FBI has had has come out of its intel shops. I’d break that component out of it. I’d shut down the FBI Hoover building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state,” Patel said in a September interview on the conservative Shawn Ryan Show.
“And I’d take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops. You’re cops. Go be cops.”
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With the nomination of Patel, Trump is signaling that he is preparing to carry out his threat to oust Wray, a Republican first appointed by Trump, whose 10-year term at the FBI does not expire until 2027.
FBI directors by law are appointed to 10-year terms, as a means of insulating the bureau from politics.
Wray, whom Trump tapped after firing James Comey in 2017 for investigating his 2016 campaign, has been a frequent target of Trump’s supporters’ ire.
During Wray’s tenure, the FBI carried out a court-approved search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate to look for classified documents and he has also faced criticism for his oversight role of a directive by Attorney General Merrick Garland aimed at working to protect local school boards from violent threats and harassment.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the two federal prosecutions against Trump for his role in subverting the 2020 election and retaining classified documents, on Nov. 25 asked the judges overseeing those cases to dismiss them before Trump takes office on Jan. 20, citing a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
Wray had previously signaled no intention of stepping down early and was busy planning events well into his 2025 calendar, according to a person familiar with the matter.
