Joe.My.God. LGBT News
CNN reports:
President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he intends to nominate Kash Patel to serve as FBI director, in an extraordinary announcement that once in office Trump would move to replace the current director, Christopher Wray, before his term expires. Wray has three years remaining in his 10-year term and would have to resign or be fired to create a vacancy. Trump nominated Wray in 2017 after firing James Comey, but he began to sour on Wray before he left office in 2021.
Trump’s interest in Patel speaks to his urge to fill top law enforcement and intelligence positions with supporters who may be open to carrying out his demands for specific investigations as well as inoculating the president against possible future probes. Patel has heavily criticized the FBI and, in a podcast interview in September, called for the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC, to be dismantled and turned into a “museum of the deep state.”
The New York Times reports:
Mr. Trump said in his social media post announcing his choice for the F.B.I. that Mr. Patel had “tried over 60 jury trials.” Colleagues from Mr. Patel’s time as an entry-level public defender in Florida recall him as a middling performer with a deep animosity toward the Justice Department prosecutors he found himself up against.
Mr. Patel spent about three years as a terrorism prosecutor at the Justice Department. He has repeatedly claimed he was the “lead prosecutor” in the government’s pursuit of the perpetrators of the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. In fact, Mr. Patel was a junior Justice Department staff member at the time, and he was not part of the trial team.
The Kash Foundation is a nonprofit that Mr. Patel has said offers financial help to a range of recipients, including the families of people charged for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Newsweek reports:
Several prominent MAGA figures have been celebrating the news online on X, formerly Twitter, with many expressing hope that Patel will take a firm stance against what they see as political bias within the bureau.
Next to a photo of her and Patel, Representative Lauren Boebert posted: “The Deep State is officially on notice! Kash Patel is coming to clean house!”
“My friend Kash Patel is going to be the next FBI director under President Trump!!” posted Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a staunch MAGA supporter, alongside a screenshot of Trump’s announcement. “It can’t get better than this!!! Y’all get your popcorn ready!!” she added.
The Associated Press reports:
Patel has also turned to publishing. He wrote a book called “Government Gangsters,” which is part memoir and part screed against the so-called deep state.
Patel teamed with Bannon to release a film version. Patel has also authored children’s books that lionize Trump — “The Plot Against the King” features a thinly veiled Hillary Clinton as the villain going after “King Donald” while Kash plays a wizard who thwarts her plans.
Patel has been a pitchman for a variety of products marketed to Trump supporters. One dietary supplement he’s promoted claims to be a COVID vaccine “detoxification system.” Records show that Patel has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from consulting for Trump-related entities, including a political action committee and the company that owns Truth Social.
Vaccine detoxification system. Yeah.
Kash Patel has openly expressed his plans to “come after” journalists he doesn’t like. He is for retribution, not justice.
This is from my book, #RoughBeast:
— Greg Olear (@gregolear.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 9:31 PM
Apparently Kash Patel was just as surprised as we were.
— Hoodlum (@nothoodlum.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 7:38 PM
A judge issued Kash Patel an Order of Ineptitude.
Follow along….
— DevinCow (@devincow.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 9:22 PM
I look forward to working with Kash Patel as FBI Director to release Epstein’s flight logs and black book.
Under the Trump administration, the American people are going to get answers.
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) December 1, 2024