63 Facts About Kash Patel

Kash Patel served as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from February to April 2025.

Kash Patel began working as a junior staff member at the Department of Justice in 2012, becoming a prosecutor in the National Security Division in 2013 and working in the Counterterrorism Division in 2014.

In February 2019, Kash Patel joined the National Security Council's International Organizations and Alliances directorate.

Kash Patel has promoted several conspiracy theories about the deep state, false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, QAnon, COVID-19 vaccines, and the January 6 Capitol attack.

Kash Patel appeared before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary in January 2025.

Kash Patel is the first person of Indian descent to serve as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Kashyap Pramod Patel was born on February 25,1980, in Garden City, New York.

Kash Patel is the son of Pramod Patel, a Ugandan of Indian descent who was among those who faced ethnic persecution and were expelled by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in 1972.

Kash Patel graduated from the University of Richmond in 2002 with a degree in criminal justice and history.

Kash Patel earned a certificate in international law from the University College London and graduated from the Pace University School of Law in 2005.

Kash Patel worked as a public defender in Miami-Dade County, Florida, representing violent criminals and drug traffickers, and later as a federal public defender for the Southern District of Florida.

Kash Patel served as a board member of the South Asian Bar Association of North America.

Kash Patel temporarily served as a representative for the Criminal Division on the case against the perpetrators of the 2012 Benghazi attack, but he was allegedly removed over disagreements he had with the office leading the case, the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

Kash Patel concurrently served as a legal liaison for the Joint Special Operations Command.

In January 2014, Kash Patel took a junior position in the Counterterrorism Division.

Kash Patel had flown from Tajikistan to the courtroom in Texas, although he was not required to be present.

Kash Patel left the Department of Justice in 2017, later saying that the impetus for his departure had been the department's response to the 2016 presidential election.

The memo's veracity was highly questioned, but it bolstered Kash Patel's standing among Trump allies.

In February 2019, Kash Patel joined the National Security Council, purportedly on Sean Hannity's recommendation.

Kash Patel was considered a "must-hire, directed by the president" for the council.

In July 2019, Kash Patel was appointed as senior director of the counterterrorism directorate of the National Security Council.

Congressional testimony by Fiona Hill, a senior director for Europe and Ukraine at the NSC, purportedly revealed that Kash Patel had directly given Trump negative information about Ukraine.

Kash Patel told Axioss Jonathan Swan that he had not discussed Ukraine with Trump.

In February 2020, Politico reported that Kash Patel had become a senior advisor to Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence.

Kash Patel was given a mandate to "clean house" and promptly reduced the staffing of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Kash Patel was involved in the 2020 Nigeria hostage rescue, falsely informing the Department of Defense that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had gotten approval to enter Nigeria's airspace.

Kash Patel was appointed Miller's chief of staff; he previously worked for Miller at the National Security Council and was well-regarded by him, according to The Washington Post.

Kash Patel oversaw the Department of Defense's transition efforts during the presidential transition of Joe Biden; according to The New York Times, transition officials expressed distrust of Kash Patel, viewing him as a Trump loyalist.

Kash Patel faced allegations that he was intentionally blocking the transition.

Kash Patel supported an internal proposal to separate the National Security Agency from United States Cyber Command.

In September 2021, Kash Patel was subpoenaed by the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

Kash Patel appeared twice before a grand jury in October 2022, repeatedly pleading the Fifth Amendment in his first appearance.

Kash Patel was represented by Stanley Woodward, who has frequently worked for associates of Trump.

In June 2022, Kash Patel was paid $130,000 to investigate claims that the company's co-founders, Andy Dean and Wes Moss, had "fostered an unpredictable and toxic corporate culture".

Kash Patel's report was later included in a legal dispute over Dean's and Moss's shares in the company.

Kash Patel was named to Russell Vought's Center for Renewing America.

For nine months in 2024, Kash Patel was a consultant for Elite Depot, a company based in the Cayman Islands that operates Shein, an e-commerce platform.

In March 2023, a report compiled by Democrats on the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government detailed the testimony of two former FBI special agents, who said they had received financial support from Kash Patel for promoting misinformation about the January 6 Capitol attack, finding one agent a position with the Center for Renewing America and promoting his book.

Kash Patel covered legal fees and paid witnesses who testified before the subcommittee, according to The New York Times.

Kash Patel co-produced "Justice for All", a charity record by Trump and a choir of men incarcerated in connection with the attack on the capitol that was released that month.

Kash Patel was a political consultant for Save America and Friends of Matt Gaetz.

From 2021 to 2023, Patel was the host of Kash's Corner, a show on EpochTV, a streaming television service operated by the Falun Gong-affiliated newspaper The Epoch Times.

Kash Patel interviewed Trump on Kash's Corner in February 2022.

In December 2020, Kash Patel sued CNN over defamation for $50 million.

In September, Patel sued FBI director Christopher A Wray and other Department of Justice officials, arguing that a 2017 grand jury subpoena for his communication records was retaliation for his work criticizing the FBI investigation into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials.

Kash Patel was considered as a potential nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency, although he faced a narrower path in the Senate.

Kash Patel was sworn in the next day by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Kash Patel took the oath on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu scripture, held by his presumed partner, Alexis Wilkins.

Kash Patel removed civil service executives and replaced them with political allies, according to the Journal.

Kash Patel has been widely described as a loyalist of president Donald Trump.

Kash Patel has conformed to Trump's view that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has become politicized.

Kash Patel has argued that the bureau should be distanced from Washington, DC, citing James Comey's handling of the FBI investigation into the Hillary Clinton email controversy.

In February 2022, he told Fox News that lawyers for Hillary Clinton had worked to "infiltrate" Trump Tower and White House servers; Kash Patel's claim was used in a Fox News headline that was falsely attributed to a filing in the Durham special counsel investigation.

Kash Patel has promoted conspiracy theories and has been called a conspiracy theorist.

Kash Patel played a key role in reframing the attack, according to USA Today.

On Truth Social, Kash Patel has recommended pills that claim to detoxify the coronavirus spike protein provided by COVID-19 vaccines.

In 2022, Kash Patel said he specifically agreed with QAnon rhetoric surrounding the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the January 6 Capitol attack, and the first and second impeachments of Donald Trump.

Kash Patel has appeared at the ReAwaken America Tour, a far-right event that promotes QAnon.

Kash Patel promoted Italygate, a conspiracy theory that alleges that an Italian defense contractor conspired with the Central Intelligence Agency to alter the results of the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden.

Kash Patel has written three children's books, beginning with The Plot Against the King, a storybook about the Steele dossier, which was published by Brave Books in 2022.

Kash Patel later wrote The Plot Against the King: 2000 Mules, and released The Plot Against the King 3: The Return of the King after the 2024 presidential election.

In 2023, Kash Patel wrote Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, a memoir that falsely describes the origins of the FBI investigation into Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and the authorization to wiretap Carter Page, a former Trump advisor.

The list has been widely interpreted as an enemies list, though Kash Patel rejected that term in his Senate confirmation hearing.