Kash Patel’s targets

I will not resolve in a single post the case of Kash Patel, the inexperienced lackey to whom Donald Trump wants to entrust the direction of the FBI. I will have the opportunity to return to the greatest “exploits” of this former federal prosecutor “who is ready to do anything for Donald Trump”, as the magazine wrote about him The Atlantic last August in a memorable portrait (free link). For now, I will content myself with publishing the list of “deep state” “bandits” who he says should be targeted by a Trump-led justice system.

The list, which includes the names Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, is long, but it is not exhaustive, says Patel in Appendix B of his book Government Gangsters that commentator and podcast host Tim Miller posted on Russian hoax of 2016):

This list contains the names of several former collaborators of Donald Trump, including Bill Barr, Gina Haspel and Charles Kupperman. What they have in common is having hindered Patel’s rise within the first administration of the president-elect or having criticized him publicly. So when he learned that Trump was preparing to nominate Patel as deputy director of the FBI, Barr, then the attorney general of the United States, blocked his path. “I categorically opposed Patel being named deputy director of the FBI. I told Mark MChristeadows that it would be done ‘over my dead body,’” Barr wrote in a book. “Someone who does not have experience as an agent will never be able to command the respect necessary to run the day-to-day operations of the office. »

Haspel, who headed the CIA, had a similar reaction when Donald Trump considered appointing Patel as deputy director of the CIA in December 2020. She said she would resign if Trump moved forward with the idea. . As for Kupperman, a former deputy national security adviser, he offered this comment to the Wall Street Journal regarding this individual he met at the end of Trump’s presidency: “He is absolutely not qualified to [le poste de directeur du FBI]. He is untrustworthy. It is an absolute disgrace for American citizens to even consider a person of this nature. »

Patel’s list also includes the name of current FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed to his post by Donald Trump. Like all FBI directors, Wray was appointed for ten years, to preserve his independence from the occupant of the White House. He will therefore have to resign and be fired to make way for Patel, which would constitute a serious breach of tradition and norms.

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