Even though he was born and raised in the US, Patel has earlier spoken about the influence of his Indian heritage in his life and how it shaped his career.
Indian-origin Kash Patel was once a federal defender and Justice Department counterterrorism prosecutor, had eyes for his role at the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a long time. The Trump loyalist was narrowly voted as the Director of the FBI by the Senate on Thursday.
Even though he was born and raised in the US, Patel has earlier spoken about the influence of his Indian heritage in his life and how it shaped his career.
His position atop the nation's premier federal law enforcement agency came after doubts from Democrats about his qualifications and concerns that he would do Donald Trump's bidding and go after the Republican president's adversaries.
After confirmation of his role, Patel also posted on X and said, "To those who seek to harm Americans--consider this your warning. We will hunt you down in every corner of this planet. Mission First. America Always. Let's get to work."
FBI directors are given 10-year terms as a way to insulate them from political influence and keep them from becoming beholden to a particular president or administration.
Kash Patel was born in the United States itself to Gujarati parents in 1980.
He graduated from the University of Richmond and later got his law degree from Pace University School of Law.
Patel started his career as a lawyer, working as a public defender. He handled a variety of cases, including murder, drug trafficking, and complicated financial crimes, in both state and federal courts.
Patel is a former federal defender and Justice Department counterterrorism prosecutor. Patel served as deputy assistant to the President and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council (NSC).
The US Defence Department reportedly stated that during his tenure at NSC, Patel was responsible for missions working towards "eliminating ISIS and Al-Qa’ida leadership such as al-Baghdadi and Qasem al-Rimi, and the safe repatriation of numerous American hostages."
A Trump loyalist who has fiercely criticised the FBI, Patel is going to inherit an FBI gripped by turmoil as the Justice Department over the past month has forced out a group of senior bureau officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.
Patel was selected in November to replace Christopher Wray, who was picked by Trump in 2017 and served for more than seven years but who repeatedly angered the president and was seen by him as insufficiently loyal. He resigned before Trump took office.
Patel attracted Trump's attention during the president's first term when, as a staffer on the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee, Patel helped write a memo with pointed criticism of the FBI's investigation into ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign.
Patel later joined Trump's administration, both as a counterterrorism official at the National Security Council and as chief of staff to the defense secretary.
According to Associated Press, Patel has spoken of his desire to implement major changes at the FBI, including a reduced footprint at headquarters in Washington and a renewed emphasis on the bureau's traditional crime-fighting duties rather than the intelligence-gathering and national security work that has come to define its mandate over the past two decades.
But he also echoed Trump's desire for retribution. Patel raised alarm among Democrats for saying before he was nominated that he would “come after” anti-Trump “conspirators” in the federal government and the media.
Patel's eyebrow-raising remarks on hundreds of podcasts and in other interviews over the past four years include referring to law enforcement officials who investigated Trump as “criminal gangsters," saying some Jan. 6 rioters were “political prisoners” and proposing to shut down the FBI headquarters and turning it into a museum for the so-called deep state.
At his Senate hearing in January, Patel said Democrats were taking some of his comments out of context or misunderstanding the broader point that he was trying to make.
Patel has also denied the idea that a list in a book he authored of government officials who he said were part of a “deep state” amounted to an “enemies list,” calling that a “total mischaracterization.”