There are several aspects of Patel’s nomination that have caused concerns from lawmakers, but some conservatives within the MAGA branch of the Republican Party have vouched for Patel to help lead what they view as Trump’s mandate for the country over the next four years.
Here is what led to Patel’s nomination:
Patel, a native of Long Island, New York, graduated from the University of Richmond in 2002, later receiving his Juris Doctor from Pace University’s law school in 2005. He became a public defender in Florida for eight years before being hired at the Department of Justice as an attorney in the National Security Division.
While working at the DOJ, Patel oversaw the prosecution of criminals aligned with terrorist groups al Qaeda, ISIS, and others, according to his Department of Defense profile. Patel claimed to be the “lead prosecutor” in the DOJ’s case against those who carried out the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed. According to the New York Times, however, Patel was a junior staff member at the time and was not on the trial team.
According to the Trump campaign, Patel reportedly received an award from the DOJ in 2017 for his work investigating the World Cup bombings in 2010.
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In 2018, Patel worked as an aide to former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), then the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. There, Patel was a key figure in Nunes’s efforts to discredit the FBI’s investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign for its alleged ties to Russia.
Patel’s involvement there included a controversial classified memo known as the Steele dossier that alleged the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants on Trump advisers.
Patel entered Trump’s first administration in February 2019, working on the National Security Council.
In November 2020, Patel was named chief of staff to acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller after Trump fired the previous defense secretary, Mark Esper.
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In the wake of Trump’s loss in 2020, the former president reportedly considered making Patel deputy director of the FBI. Former Attorney General William Barr wrote in his memoir that Patel “had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency.”
Barr added that Patel would become the FBI’s second in command “over my dead body.”
Trump also floated the idea of making Patel the top deputy in the CIA under then-Director Gina Haspel by firing the person who held that post. Trump reportedly hoped that, in turn, Haspel would resign, which would give Patel the opportunity to become director of the CIA without being confirmed by the Senate.
Others in the first Trump administration, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, were reportedly concerned about Patel’s possible actions should he be given more power.
In his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said without evidence that the DOJ was weaponized against him. A particular point of contention for him was the FBI, which he claimed was “badly broken,” adding that it “lost the confidence of America.”
Some of Trump’s vision for the FBI aligns with previous statements Patel has made.
In his 2023 book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, Patel lays out his case against what he refers to as “the deep state.” To Patel, the so-called deep state includes elected officials, journalists, Big Tech moguls, and “members of the unelected bureaucracy.”
In the book, Patel calls for “a comprehensive housecleaning” of the DOJ, an agency that he says has protected high-ranking members of the Democratic Party while unjustly targeting Republicans and their GOP allies.
The book also includes a list of “corrupt actors” who Patel believes are in the deep state. These so-called bad actors are mainly current and former Democratic officials, Republicans who have spoken out against Trump, and DOJ officials who have been involved in various investigations into Trump.
Trump praised the book as a “blueprint to take back the White House and remove these Gangsters from all of Government,” according to promotional endorsements.
Patel has also criticized the FBI specifically. In September, he said the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., should be dismantled and turned into a “museum of the deep state.”
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Patel has also been deeply critical of members of the media. In a 2023 interview with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, Patel said under Trump, the DOJ would “come after” members of the media.
“We’ve got to put in all-American patriots top to bottom,” Patel said, adding that the department under Trump “will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media.”
“Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections — we’re going to come after you,” he continued.
Trump, in his nomination, described Patel as “a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,” noting his “pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax.”
According to the Atlantic, Patel is fiercely loyal to Trump and has found various opportunities to stay in Trump’s orbit when he left office in 2021. Patel became a member of the board of directors for the Trump Media & Technology Group in 2022, the group that owns Trump’s Truth Social media platform. Nunes, Patel’s former boss, is the CEO of TMTG.
“A lot of people say he’s crazy,” Trump once said of Patel, according to the outlet. “I think he’s kind of crazy. But sometimes you need a little crazy.”
Patel’s appointment as FBI director would require the current director, Christopher Wray, to step down or be forced out of the job. Wray, a 2017 Trump appointee, has three years left before his 10-year term expires.
FBI directors are appointed to 10-year terms, which have the possibility of spanning three different presidents. Their long terms were imposed in 1976 as a future safeguard in the wake of Watergate after it became clear that former President Richard Nixon’s choice for FBI director, L. Patrick Gray, had destroyed documents related to the FBI’s investigations of the scandal.
The term limit is meant to assert the independence of FBI directors from any political leader or party.
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Trump could fire Wray like he fired former FBI Director James Comey, which appears to be the likely path to getting Patel into the agency.
Following Trump’s announcement, the FBI released a statement saying, “Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats. Director Wray’s focus remains on the men and women of the FBI, the people we do the work with, and the people we do the work for.”
The FBI director must also be confirmed by the Senate. Many Senate Republicans appear on board with Patel’s nomination, including Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ted Cruz (R-TX).
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Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) voiced some support for Wray on ABC News’s This Week, saying Trump “has the right” to make appointments but noting that Wray has three years remaining on his term.
“The message, and one that I feel very strongly about, is that there is a constitutional separation. The Founding Fathers did that for a reason,” Rounds said. “We will, you know, we accept that the president should have the people that he wants in his Cabinet and on his team. Every president wants that. We give them the benefit of the doubt.”
