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elected president trump announced last week that he intends to nominate former White House aide and longtime ally Kash Patel to serve as FBI director, which could make him the only U.S. president who has fired and installed two separate FBI directors halfway through his 10-year tenure.
“Kash is a brilliant attorney, investigator and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, upholding justice and protecting the American people,” Trump said in a social media post announcing his intention of appointing Patel as director of the FBI.
“He played a critical role in uncovering the deception of Russia, Russia and Russia, as a defender of truth, accountability and the Constitution.”
Patel is a close ally of the president-elect and served in the first Trump administration both as deputy assistant and senior counterterrorism director. He was backed on Friday by the National Police Association, which praised Patel’s record of “transparency” and “accountability” that it said makes him well-positioned to lead the law enforcement agency in expansion of the country.
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President-elect Trump nominated Kash Patel as FBI director over the weekend. (Getty Images)
Still, news of Trump’s plans to nominate Patel drew criticism, if not surprise, from others in the law enforcement community.
That’s because replacing a sitting FBI director is a controversial move that breaks with the express purpose of the role, which under post-Watergate laws required directors to be appointed to 10-year terms: a express time period designed to allow directors. — at least in theory — to operate outside of political pressure or interference from a sitting president.
Trump sent shockwaves through the law enforcement community in 2017 when he fired then-FBI Director James Comey, who was less than four years into his 10-year tenure at the time. Trump also personally selected current FBI Director Christopher Wray — whom he praised at the time as a “fierce guardian of the law and the model of integrity” — to replace him.
For Trump to install Patel as FBI director, two things have to happen: Wray has to leave the job and Patel has to get Senate confirmation.
How Wray will fare is still unclear.
He could choose to voluntarily step down on his own before Trump’s inauguration, though he has not yet said whether he plans to do so. If Wray does not voluntarily step down, Trump could become the only president in US history to fire and install two separate FBI directors.
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Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray prepares to testify before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 23, 2021. (Sarah Silbiger/Pool via Reuters)
Patel must also be confirmed by the Senate, although the Republican-led chamber is likely to pass to approve him for the position.
Patel’s nomination has drawn early criticism from some Democrats ahead of his confirmation hearing, who have cited his past votes to prosecute journalists and career Justice Department and FBI officials he believes are part of the “deep state”. He has since tried to clarify some of these observations.
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Only one other FBI director has been fired in American history: William Sessions, a Reagan appointee who was widely disliked both for being an ineffective leader and for using his position to order limousines and private government flights for personal business, among other things.
