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December 12th, 2024 Len’s Political Note #691 Oppose Kash Patel for FBI Director
2025 Trump Nominees
Donald Trump is setting a test for the Republican Senate. He is setting a test for us. And he is setting a test for himself. Can he bully the Senate into allowing him to make appointments of terrible people. Terrible people that he likes, but terrible people.
Matt Gaetz withdrew from the Attorney General nomination faced with revelations about his history of sex with a minor and drug use.
Pete Hegseth is still Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense notwithstanding revelations about a rape charge, other mistreatment of women (as noted by his mother who has come to his defense), financial improprieties, and ordinary drunkenness. See Len’s Political Note #687
Tulsi Gabbard is still Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence notwithstanding revelations about her views about international affairs that are more consistent with Russia’s interests than our own. See Len’s Political Note #688
Linda McMahon is still Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education notwithstanding the high probability that she would prepare the Department for its abolition if confirmed. See Len’s Political Note #689.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr is still Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services notwithstanding his views and obsessions about health, food, and medication that are inconsistent with our scientific understandings. See Len’s Political Note #690
Kash Patel is still Trump’s nominee for Director of the FBI because his views are consistent with Trump’s plan for vengeance against those who Trump and Patel perceive as Trump’s enemies. Patel made a list in his book published in 2023:
Michael Atkinson (as inspector general of the intelligence community, he alerted Congress about a whistleblower complaint that Trump attempted to blackmail Zelensky into investigating Hunter Biden. Fired by Trump, now in private practice.)
Lloyd Austin (Joe Biden’s defense secretary whom, among other actions, to keep up the strength of the troops, urged vaccinations during the pandemic)
Brian Auten (counterintelligence figure for the FBI involved in the investigations of Russia’s effort to interfere with the 2016 election)
James A. Baker (James A. Baker resigned as general counsel for the FBI, was fired by Musk when he reorganized Twitter)
Bill Barr (former attorney general under under GHW Bush and under Donald Trump, criticized for misleading summary of the Mueller Report, expressed confidence in 2020 election)
John Bolton (former national security adviser who is critical of the competence and character of Trump’s nominations and describes Trump as wanting “yes men.”)
Stephen Boyd (AG Sessions staffer, Tuberville Chief of Staff, critical of the release of the “Nunes memo” which was reportedly written by Patel)
Joe Biden (president of the United States)
John Brennan (CIA director under Obama, critical of Trump who subsequently revoked Brennan’s security clearance)
John Carlin (Briefly at beginning of Biden’s term, acting deputy attorney general, was Mueller’s Chief of Staff)
Eric Ciaramella (former National Security Council analyst, senior fellow at the Carnegie endowment, specialist in Russia and Ukraine)
Pat Cippolone (White House counsel under Trump, defended Trump in first impeachment trial, but critical of the effort to overturn 2020 elections, and played a role in the Jan 6 committee hearings)
James Clapper (Obama’s director of national intelligence, analyst for think tanks and CNN)
Hillary Clinton (former secretary of state and presidential candidate)
James Comey (appointed FBI director by Obama, his reopening of the Clinton email investigation may have won the election for Trump, fired by Trump as the Mueller investigation into Trump became controversial, subsequently Comey leaked a memo he wrote about the investigation into Trump favorite Michael Flynn. Inspector General found Comey violated FBI policy, but did not leak any classified information))
Elizabeth Dibble (former deputy chief of mission, U.S. Embassy, London)
Mark Esper (Trump’s secretary of defense who was fired after Esper fired the Navy Secretary who had gone directly to Trump with an issue)
Alyssa Farah (Trump’s director of strategic communications who resigned in December 2020 and condemned Trump for leading the January 6 attack and said he should resign)
Evelyn Farkas (Obama’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia and among the first to express concern about Russian interference in the 2016 election)
Sarah Isgur Flores (DOJ head of communications under Trump and AG Jeff Sessions; fired after Jeff Sessions was fired)
Merrick Garland (Joe Biden’s attorney general who appointed special prosecutor to investigate Trump)
Stephanie Grisham (Trump WH press secretary who resigned immediately after the January 6 insurrection and published a book later in 2021)
Kamala Harris (vice president under Biden; 2024 presidential candidate)
Gina Haspel (Trump’s CIA director, supported expulsion of Russian diplomats after a poisoning and the removal of Russian companies tied to a Russian oligarch)
Fiona Hill (National Security Council under Trump, close to John Bolton, testified in Trump impeachment trial)
Curtis Heide (testifying in the trial of Hillary Clinton’s campaign attorney, FBI agent Heide acknowledged he was under FBI investigation for withholding evidence in an application to surveil a Trump campaigner. )
Eric Holder (Attorney General under Obama)
Robert Hur (special counsel who investigated Biden over mishandling of classified documents)
Cassidy Hutchinson (aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, she testified about Trump’s conduct during the January 6 insurrection)
Nina Jankowicz (briefly executive director, Disinformation Governance Board, under Biden and author of a book about Russian use of disinformation )
Lois Lerner (Obama’s IRS director accused of targeting right wing organizations non-profit status)
Loretta Lynch (attorney general under Obama, closed the case regarding Hillary Clinton’s emails)
Charles Kupperman (Trump’s deputy national security adviser and supporter of John Bolton, left the DNC shortly after Bolton did.)
Gen. Kenneth Mackenzie, retired (His retirement in 2021 as commander of United States Central Command was described by some as marking the end of the US role in Afghanistan war)
Andrew McCabe (FBI deputy director under Trump, fired by AG Sessions shortly before his scheduled retirement based on claims that he had authorized release of information about investigation into the Clinton Foundation)
Ryan McCarthy (Trump’s secretary of the Army made no preparations for national guard actions prior to January 6 and instituted regulations that caused delays in response on January 6)
Mary McCord (Obama’s acting assistant attorney general for national security, appointed by House Speaker as legal counsel to the House task force investigating January 6 insurrection)
Denis McDonough (President Obama’s chief of staff)
Gen. Mark Milley, retired (Trump’s chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, he was critical of Trump’s order that he join in photo op after the clearing of protesters in Lafayette Square and discussed with colleagues ways to prevent a coup by Trump)
Lisa Monaco (Biden’s deputy attorney general, she was responsible for high level review of Trump administration activities and referred a Trump administration subpoena of Apple to the Inspector General)
Sally Myer (former supervisory attorney, FBI)
Robert Mueller (former FBI director, special counsel investigating Russia’s influence on the 2016 election)
Bruce Ohr (associate deputy attorney general under Obama and Trump, erroneously criticized for initiating the investigation of Russia’s influence on the 2016 election)
Nellie Ohr (wife of Bruce Ohr, who worked for Fusion GPS, the firm that hired Christopher Steele to investigate Trump’s personal and business ties to Trump)
Lisa Page (former legal counsel for Deputy Director Andrew McCabe at FBI under Obama and Trump; exchanged texts disparaging Trump with Peter Strzok)
Pat Philbin (deputy White House counsel under Trump, served on the defense team in Trump’s first impeachment trial)
John Podesta (counselor to Obama, campaign consultant to Hillary Clinton in 2016 whose emails were hacked, senior adviser to Biden on climate policy, replaced John Kerry as US Special Envoy on Climate)
Samantha Power (ambassador to the UN under Obama, administrator of US Agency for International Development under Biden, advocate for victims of authoritarian regimes and for US military action against Libya)
Bill Priestap (assistant director for counterintelligence, FBI, under Obama, opened the FBI investigation of 2016 Trump campaign collusion with Russia)
Susan Rice (national security adviser under Obama during which time she sought to identify Americans mentioned in intelligence reports, a request which led to claims that Trump had been illegally investigated,. She later served as director of the Domestic Policy Council under Biden)
Rod Rosenstein (Trump’s deputy attorney general who oversaw the FBI investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, he prevented the FBI investigation and the Mueller investigation from looking into Trump’s personal and financial ties to Russia.)
Peter Strzok (deputy assistant director for counterintelligence in the FBI, under Obama and Trump who exchanged disparaging texts about Trump with Lisa Page)
Jake Sullivan (Joe Biden’s national security adviser, dep staff chief for Secy of State Hillary Clinton, helped shape US foreign policy toward Libya, Syria, ,and Myanmar.)
Michael Sussman (former legal representative of the Democratic National Committee, acquitted of a charge that he lied to the FBI about Trump-Russia links )
Miles Taylor (former Trump Homeland Security official; wrote an anonymous NY Times op-ed titled “I am part of the resistance inside the Trump administration.”
Timothy Thibault (resigned as an FBI agent after the Special Counsel’s office determined that Thibault had violated the Hatch Act by bringing partisanship to investigations of Trump and of Hunter Biden.)
Andrew Weissman (Mueller’s deputy in the special counsel investigation of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election)
Alexander Vindman (Trump’s National Security Council director for European affairs was a whistleblower and testified to Congress regarding Trump abusing his power as president by attempting to get the President of Ukraine to initiate an investigation of improper activities by Hunter Biden)
Christopher Wray (FBI director under Trump and Biden, Wray ordered an internal review for possible improper behavior in the investigation of Trump’s national security advisor Michael Flynn and, in a Senate hearing, described the January 6 insurrection as domestic terrorism. Wray’s 10 year term expires in August 2027, but Trump has announced Kash Patel as Wray’s replacement.
Sally Yates (deputy attorney general under Obama and, briefly, acting attorney general under Trump, Trump fired her when she instructed the Judiciary Department not to defend Trump’s Executive order to ban refugees and other travel from Muslim countries.)
The New York Times has added a few more names of people Trump would see as enemies worthy of vengeance:
Liz Cheney (former Republican Congresswoman and vice-chair of the Jan 6 committee)
Arthur Engoron (NY Judge who presided over Trump’s fraud trial)
Anthony Fauci (former top infectious disease expert for the government who provided advice on dealing with Covid – 19.
Letitia James (NY AG who won a $450 million judgment against Trump in fraud trial)
Jack Smith (outgoing special counsel who prosecuted Trump)
Adam Schiff (Senator-elect from CA who was lead prosecutor in Trump impeachment)
Olivia Troye (advisor to Vice President Pence, signed a s letter along with 130 other national security figures saying Trump was unfit to serve as president )
Mark Zuckerberg (Cofounder of Facebook and the now parent company Meta, criticized Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from muslim countries.)
Kash Patel was born in Garden City, Long Island about a half an hour drive from the section of Queens where my wife grew up. His parents’ roots were in Vadadora, Gujarat in northeastern India, north of Mumbai. Both parents were already part of the Indian diaspora. His mother was raised in Tanzania; his father in Uganda. Living in Uganda, they fled the country after Idi Amin’s takeover – first to Canada and then to the United States.
Kash Patel went to the University of Richmond in Virginia where he got his BA, and then back home to Pace University for law school. While getting his JD from Pace in 2005, he also got a certificate in international law from University College, London.
From Pace, he went to Florida where he spent eight years as a public defender. In 2014, while Barack Obama was still President, he was hired as a trial attorney in the National Security Division of the Justice Department. After the 2016 election, Patel left the Justice Department to work for the House Intelligence Committee, then chaired by David Nunes. Initially Patel was a senior counsel on counterterrorism then was an aide directly for the Chair as they prepared to counter investigations of Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election. Notwithstanding denials by Nunes’ spokespeople, the New York Times claims that Patel was the author of a memo under Nunes’ name claiming misconduct by the FBI in its warrant application for electronic surveillance of Trump which made Patel a hero to Trump and his closest supporters.
After Democrats gained control of the House in the 2018 election, Patel joined the staff of Donald Trump’s National Security Council. By July of 2019, Patel was Senior Director of the Counterterrorism Directorate. He was responsible for negotiating for the release of two Americans from Russia.
Although, Patel’s responsibility was counterterrorism, He appeared to have become Trump’s principal advisor about Ukraine and principal communicator on the topic within the government. No one suggests that the effort to force Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden was Patel’s proposal. Suggestions that Patel be named head of the CIA gained strong resistance from Attorney General Bill Barr. Instead, Patel was named chief of staff for the Acting Secretary of Defense after Mark Esper was fired as Secretary. In the run up to and the time after the election, at least one source described Patel as the central figure in the American national security system.
During the Biden administration, Patel’s wrote books. He wrote a children’s book called The Plot Against the King. The victim of the plot was King Donald. He wrote a book for grownups called Government Gangsters which included the targets for vengeance listed above (the parenthetical descriptors, though, are mine). He also appears to have become a follower of QAnon and a believer din the existence of pills that reverse the effects of Covid-19 vaccines. Time seems to achieve that same reversal which is why we need booster shots.
Patel is a preposterous choice of head of the FBI. His nomination may be the reason that the Biden administration is looking seriously at pardoning people considered to be enemies of Trump.
Oppose Patel’s nomination. Call and urge your Senators to oppose the nomination. The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider Patel’s nomination. As with other nominations, even if every Democrat opposes, confirmation can be prevented only if four Republicans oppose. Here are the current members of the Senate Judiciary committee minus committee members who will not return in January. Call their offices as well and leave your opinion that Kash Patel should not be confirmed.
Republicans
Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, probable Chair. (202-224-5972)
Chuck Grassley of Iowa (202-224-6832)
John Cornyn of Texas (202-224-2934)
Mike Lee of Utah (202-224-5444)
Ted Cruz of Texas (202-224-5922)
Josh Hawley of Missouri (202-224-6154)
Tom Cotton of Arkansas (202-224-2353)
John Kennedy of Louisiana (202-224-4623)
Thom Tillis of North Carolina (202-224-6342)
Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee (202-224-3344)
Democrats:
Dick Durban of Illinois (202-224-2152)
Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island (202-224-2921)
Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota (202-224-3244)
Chris Coons of Delaware (202-224-5042)
Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut (202-224-2823)
Mazie Hirono of Hawaii (202-224-6361)
Cory Booker of New Jersey (202-224-3224)
Alex Padilla of California (202-224-3553)
Jon Ossoff of Georgia (202-224-3521)
Peter Welch of Vermont (202-224-4242)å
