President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday said he wanted former national security official and firebrand loyalist Kash Patel to lead the FBI, signaling an intent to drive out the bureau's current director, Christopher Wray.
Patel, who during Trump's first term advised both the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense, has previously called for stripping the FBI of its intelligence-gathering role and purging its ranks of any employee who refuses to support Trump's agenda.
"The biggest problem the FBI has had has come out of its intel shops. I'd break that component out of it. I'd shut down the FBI Hoover building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state," Patel said in a September interview on the conservative Shawn Ryan Show.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.