Trump’s pick for FBI head started as Miami lawyer but didn’t stand out, ex-colleagues say
Kash Patel was a nobody in Miami before he became a somebody in Trump’s world.
Patel was named over the weekend by President-elect Donald Trump as his nominee for FBI director. Known as a firebrand Trump loyalist, he got his start as a young lawyer in the state and federal public defender’s offices in Miami.
After graduating from Pace University School of Law in his native New York in 2005, Patel learned to be a trial attorney representing indigent defendants in dozens of robbery, drug-trafficking and violent-crime cases in Miami until 2013.
Eight years in Miami
But to those who knew him during his eight years in Miami, there was nothing distinctive about the 44-year-old Patel — certainly not a hint of an aptitude for being named as one of the top law-enforcement officers in the country.
During his stint in the state public defender’s office, some colleagues noted that he made a positive impression on some peers and judges, leading to his getting hired in late 2009 as an assistant federal public defender, where he was one of the lone Republicans in the office.
But a defense attorney who worked alongside Patel representing clients in Miami federal court said he wasn’t a “true believer,” like so many assistant public defenders who are disposed to fighting the government at every turn.
“He was below average, an underachiever,” said Miami attorney Paul Petruzzi, who was often assigned by judges to represent clients in federal criminal cases involving the public defender’s office. “He wasn’t like other assistant public defenders who were willing to file motions to suppress evidence even when they knew they were gonna lose.”
Others who worked with him agreed.
“He didn’t have a bad reputation as a lawyer,” said a former colleague in the federal public defender’s officer, who like several others declined to comment by name. “He just wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. He wasn’t anything special.”
But Patel’s transfer to Washington, before Trump’s first campaign for president and the rise of his MAGA movement, would lift him out of obscurity.
In 2014, the Justice Department hired him as a trial attorney in its National Security Division. 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, according to the New York Times. In reality, Patel was not part of the trial team but rather a junior Justice Department staff member.
‘Nunes memo’ got Trump’s attention
In April 2017, Patel became the senior committee aide to House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes, rising to a prominent role in the GOP’s opposition to the Justice Department’s investigations into Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election. He impressed Trump as the primary author of the secret “Nunes memo,” a key document in House Republicans’ effort to undermine the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian meddling in that election.
The memo, declassified by Trump over the objections of the intelligence agencies and Democrats, claimed that politics fueled the Russia investigation and that the government had spied on the Trump campaign itself.
As a reward, Trump ordered that Patel be given a job on the National Security Council staff.
In 2019, Trump proposed to a group of top advisers that Patel begin vetting White House aides for loyalty, as the president combated Democratic and public outrage over his effort to enlist Ukraine in smearing former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Patel’s task: to serve as a “political executioner,” in the words of Charles Kupperman, the deputy national security adviser at the time. Kupperman and White House legal advisers talked the president out of it, according to the New York Times.
Patel remained a Trump loyalist through his darkest times after he lost the 2020 election to Biden and was accused of inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on the Capitol to stop the transfer of presidential power.
On Saturday, Trump said he wanted to replace Christopher Wray, whom he had appointed in 2017 to a 10-year term, and replace him with Patel.
Critic of FBI
Like Trump, Patel has been a harsh critic of the FBI, calling for shutting down its Washington headquarters, firing its leadership and bringing the nation’s law enforcement agencies “to heel.” Trump and his allies have come to view the FBI as part of a “deep state” conspiracy against him.
Patel “played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability and the Constitution,” Trump said in announcing his choice in a social media post.
In his book, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,“ Patel wrote that the Justice Department was a hotbed of “endemic corruption” and prosecutors who “lie, leak, cover up or twist the truth to accomplish their mission.” Known for his bravado, he added: “This is exactly how I saw the Deep State operate in its attempt to take down President Trump.”
Prominent Miami defense attorney Jon Sale, who recollected Patel’s time in Miami, said there’s no question that he’s “very controversial.”
But he said Trump’s naming him to replace Wray — who is almost three years from completing his term and must resign or be fired to make way for Patel — shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
“One of the things Trump campaigned on was that he was going to shake up the FBI,” Sale said. “He wants someone in there who’s willing to go against the norm.
“It’s not a disqualification that he’s a Trump loyalist, but he will have to satisfy the concerns of senators” who vote on his confirmation.
This story was originally published December 2, 2024 at 5:45 PM.
