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Kash Patel

Kash Patel
Official portrait, 2020
Personal details
Born
Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel

(1980-02-25) February 25, 1980 (age 44)
Garden City, New York, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
EducationUniversity of Richmond (BA)
Pace University (JD)

Kashyap Pramod Vinod "Kash" Patel (born February 25, 1980)[1] is an American attorney and former government official. He served as a U.S. National Security Council official, senior advisor to the acting Director of National Intelligence, and chief of staff to the acting United States secretary of defense during the Trump presidency.[2][3][4] A member of the Republican Party, Patel previously worked as a senior aide to congressman Devin Nunes when he chaired the House Intelligence Committee.[5] He was previously a federal public defender, a federal prosecutor working on national security cases, and a legal liaison to the United States Armed Forces.[6]

Patel has widely been described by news organizations as a "Trump loyalist".[7][8][9] As an aide to Congressman Devin Nunes, Patel played a key role in helping Republican attempts to fight the investigations into Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election.[10][8]

Early life and education

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Kashyap "Kash" Patel was born in 1980 in Garden City, New York, to Gujarati Indian parents who had immigrated to the United States from East Africa, via Canada.[11][12] His father worked for an aviation firm as a financial officer. Patel graduated from Garden City High School on Long Island. Patel was raised as a Hindu, and has said that he has always had a "very deep" connection with India.[13] Patel received a degree in criminal justice and history from the University of Richmond in 2002.[14] He received a certificate in international law from University College London in 2004,[15][16] and earned a Juris Doctor from Pace University School of Law in 2005.[11][17]

Career

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Early career

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After graduating from law school in 2005, Patel worked as a public defender in Florida for eight years, first in the Miami-Dade County public defender's office and later as a federal public defender.[17][18] As a public defender he represented clients charged with felonies including international drug trafficking, murder, firearms violations, and bulk cash smuggling.[18][19]

In 2014, Patel was hired as a trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice National Security Division, where he simultaneously served as a legal liaison to the Joint Special Operations Command.[17][19] In 2017, Patel was appointed senior counsel on counterterrorism at the House Select Committee on Intelligence.[17][15][a]

Aide to Devin Nunes

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In April 2017, Patel became the senior committee aide to House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes.[7][10] Patel played a prominent role in the Republican opposition to the investigations into Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election.[10][8]

According to The New York Times, Patel was the primary author of the 2018 Nunes memo, alleging FBI misconduct in its application for a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for electronic surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.[21] That claim was disputed by the committee's staff director, by a spokesman for Nunes, and by unattributed sources interviewed by India Abroad. Patel did not offer a public comment on the matter.[20] The New York Times opined that the memo was widely dismissed as "biased" containing "cherry-picked facts", but "it galvanized President Trump's allies and made Mr. Patel a hero among them".[22]

After Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in January 2019,[23] Patel worked for about a month as a senior counsel at the House Reform and Oversight Committee.[24]

Executive branch

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Positions

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Patel was hired in February 2019 as a staffer for President Trump's National Security Council (NSC), working in the International Organizations and Alliances directorate,[25] and in July 2019 became Senior Director of the Counterterrorism Directorate,[26] a new position created for him.[25] According to The Wall Street Journal, Patel led a secret mission to Damascus in early 2020 to negotiate the release of Majd Kamalmaz and journalist Austin Tice, both of whom were being held by the Syrian government.[17][27]

In February 2020, Patel moved to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI),[28] becoming a Principal Deputy[19][29] to Acting Director Richard Grenell. Later that month, Patel was part of Trump's entourage during the state visit of the United States to the Republic of India and was noted in press reports as one of two Americans of Indian descent to accompany the president.[30][31][b] Patel has widely been described as a "Trump loyalist".[7][8][9]

Trump-Ukraine scandal

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Further information: Trump-Ukraine scandal

Within months of Patel's appointment to the NSC, it was suspected that Patel had assumed the role of an additional independent back channel for the President, which was seen as potentially detrimental to American policy in Ukraine. It was noticed that during NSC meetings Patel took few notes and was underqualified for his portfolio, the United Nations.[22][25]

Red flags were raised when Trump referred to Patel as "one of his top Ukraine policy specialists" and as such wished "to discuss related documents with him".[22] Patel's actual assignment was counter-terrorism issues, rather than Ukraine. He was thought to have operated independently of Giuliani's irregular, informal channel. Impeachment inquiry witnesses were asked what they knew about Patel. Fiona Hill told investigators that it seems "Patel was improperly becoming involved in Ukraine policy and was sending information to Mr. Trump."[22] Gordon Sondland and Kent testified they did not come across Patel in the course of their work.[22]

On December 3, 2019, the House Intelligence Committee's report included phone records, acquired via subpoenas to AT&T and/or Verizon, including a 25-minute phone call between Patel and Giuliani on May 10, 2019.[32]: 58  The call occurred after Giuliani and Patel attempted to call each other for several hours, and less than an hour after a call between Giuliani and Kurt Volker.[32]: 58  Five minutes after the 25-minute call between Giuliani and Patel, an unidentified phone number called Giuliani for over 17 minutes, after which Giuliani called his associate Lev Parnas for approximately 12 minutes.[32]: 58  In a statement to CBS News on December 4, 2019, Patel denied being part of Giuliani's Ukraine back-channel, saying he was "never a back channel to President Trump on Ukraine matters, at all, ever",[33] and that his call with Giuliani was "personal".[34]

In an October 2019 story, Politico, citing an anonymous source it reported had formerly worked at the White House, wrote that Patel had "unique access" to Donald Trump and had provided "out of scope" advice to him on the United States' Ukraine policy.[25][35] Patel denied the claims and, the following month, sued Politico for defamation, seeking $25 million in damages.[35][c]

Reported move to lead CIA

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In January 2021, Axios reported that Trump had considered Patel for appointment as Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency to replace Gina Haspel.[1][37] According to Axios, Patel was to be appointed Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency immediately before a planned dismissal of Haspel, allowing him to head the agency in an acting capacity.[1][37] In an interview with Vanity Fair, Ezra Cohen-Watnick confirmed parts of the Axios report. Patel declined to comment.[1][37]

U.S. Department of Defense

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Patel traveling with Acting Secretary Miller on January 14, 2021

In November 2020, Trump named Patel chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller, a move that followed Trump's firing of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.[38] Patel reportedly argued that Esper was disloyal to Trump by refusing to deploy military troops to Washington to quell the George Floyd protests.[10] Patel remained at the Pentagon for three months.[14]

Foreign Policy magazine connected the move to Trump's "refusal to accept the election results".[39] Based on interviews with defense experts, Alex Ward of Vox suggested that Patel's appointment was "not sinister", would "not change much", and may have served an effort to accelerate the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.[40] According to an unnamed source quoted by Vanity Fair, Miller was a "front man" during his time as Acting Secretary of Defense while Patel and Cohen-Watnick were "calling the shots" at the Department of Defense.[1] Another source told the magazine that Patel was the most influential person in the U.S. government on matters of national security.[1]

After the November 2020 election, Patel reportedly blocked some Department of Defense officials from helping the Biden administration transition, according to NBC.[7] As chief of staff, Patel was designated to lead the Department of Defense's coordination with the presidential transition of Joe Biden, and also supported a departmental initiative to separate the National Security Agency from the U.S. Cyber Command.[8][41]

Involvement in Trump documents investigation

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The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) found in 2021 that Trump had taken presidential documents with him to his home in Florida after leaving office. After Trump returned some documents, NARA found others were still missing, including some that were highly classified. NARA referred the matter to the FBI, and after requests and a subpoena to return the documents went unheeded, the FBI entered Trump's home under a search warrant to retrieve them. Patel publicly asserted that Trump had declassified broad sets of sensitive documents before leaving the White House. In October 2022, Patel was summoned to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the matter, but he declined to answer questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Patel was represented in the matter by lawyer Stanley Woodward.[42] The Justice Department sought but failed to persuade a federal judge to compel Patel's testimony, whereupon he was granted immunity to testify, which he did on November 4, 2022.[43][44]

Post-government career

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Since 2020, Patel has invoked his association with Donald Trump into "enterprises he promotes under the logotype 'K$H'."[14] In April 2022, Patel became a member of the board of directors for the Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of the Truth Social media platform.[45] Patel is the author of a children's picture book, titled The Plot Against the King, that claims that the Steele dossier was used as evidence to initiate the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Illustrated by Laura Vincent, the book was published in May 2022 by Brave Books.[46][47]

On June 19, 2022, Trump sent a letter to the National Archives naming Patel and John Solomon as "representatives for access to Presidential records of my administration".[48] In 2022, Patel created Fight With Kash, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity, to raise donations for "helping other people" in need, though more specifically to bring "America First patriots" together and "helping fight the Deep State." Patel said he "funded whistleblowers campaigns," which Democrats on the Republican-controlled House Judiciary weaponization subcommittee said included former FBI employees the FBI claimed endorse "an alarming series of conspiracy theories related to the January 6 Capitol attack ... and the validity of the 2020 election." During a December 2023 appearance on the Steve Bannon "War Room" podcast, Patel concurred with Bannon's assertions that Donald Trump is "dead serious" about his intent to seek revenge against his political enemies should he be elected in 2024. Patel stated:

"We will go out and find the conspirators — not just in government, but in the media ... we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections ... We're going to come after you. Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice, and Steve, this is why they hate us. This is why we're tyrannical. This is why we're dictators ... Because we're actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.[49]

Patel's remarks came during concurrent reporting in The New York Times about "a series of plans by Mr. Trump and his allies that would upend core elements of American governance, democracy, foreign policy and the rule of law if he regained the White House." Axios reported days later that Patel was being considered for a top national security position in a second Trump administration.[50][49][51]

Personal life

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Patel resides in the District of Columbia.[18] He plays ice hockey.[19] In 2014, he agreed to participate in a bachelor auction of what Above the Law described as "very handsome lawyers" to benefit Switchboard of Miami,[52] but he withdrew from the auction after a blogger noted his Florida law license had expired.[53]

Notes

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  1. ^ According to The New York Times, Patel was the primary author of the Nunes memo, however, that claim was disputed by the committee's staff director, by a spokesman for Nunes, and by unattributed sources interviewed by India Abroad.[20] Patel did not offer a public comment on the matter.[20]
  2. ^ The other was Ajit Pai.[31]
  3. ^ As of January 2021, the case was being heard in the circuit court of Henrico County, Virginia.[36]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Ciralsky, Adam (January 22, 2021). "Embedding with Pentagon Leadership in Trump's Chaotic Last Week". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  2. ^ Lippman, Daniel (February 20, 2020). "NSC aide who worked to discredit Russia probe moves to senior ODNI post". Politico.
  3. ^ Levine, Mike (March 8, 2023). "Trump loyalist Kash Patel's tax-exempt charity raises questions, experts say". ABC News.
  4. ^ "Reports: Trump aide Kash Patel offered immunity in Mar-a-Lago documents probe". USA Today. November 2, 2022.
  5. ^ Katie Rogers; Matthew Rosenberg (February 2, 2018). "Kashyap Patel, Main Author of Secret Memo, Is No Stranger to Quarrels". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Shinkman, Paul (November 12, 2020). "Trump's Pentagon Shake-Up Has Implications for Afghanistan". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d "Trump loyalist Patel limits Biden transition access to Pentagon staff". NBC News. December 5, 2020. Archived from the original on February 19, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  8. ^ a b c d e Feldscher, Jacqueline (November 24, 2020). "Kash Patel, recently installed Trump loyalist, now leading Pentagon transition". Politico. Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  9. ^ a b Swan, Jonathan (January 16, 2021). "Gina Haspel threatened to resign over plan to install Trump loyalist Kash Patel as CIA deputy". Axios. Archived from the original on April 15, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  10. ^ a b c d Youssef, Warren P. Strobel and Nancy A. (November 10, 2020). "White House National Security Council Aide Is Named to Top Pentagon Post". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on June 6, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  11. ^ a b Haniffa, Aziz (August 13, 2019). "Trump admirer Kashyap 'Kash' Patel lands important White House position". India Abroad. Archived from the original on December 23, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  12. ^ Plott Calabro, Elaina (August 26, 2024). "The Man Who Will Do Anything for Trump". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  13. ^ Patel, Kash Pramod (September 26, 2023). Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy. Simon and Schuster. pp. 114–115. ISBN 978-1-63758-825-3.
  14. ^ a b c Williamson, Elizabeth (October 16, 2024). "Swift Rise Puts Trump Loyalist in the Spotlight: Bluster Masks Lack of Experience, Foes Say. Eager Loyalist Rises Quickly Despite Lack of Experience". The New York Times. Vol. 174, no. 60309. pp. A1, A15. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  15. ^ a b "Who is Kashyap 'Kash' Patel?". The Indian Express. February 3, 2018. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  16. ^ "Who is Kashyap Patel, Indian-American official named as source for Ukraine info at Trump impeachment". gulfnews.com. November 22, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  17. ^ a b c d e "Indian-American named Chief of Staff". Times of India. November 11, 2020. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  18. ^ a b c Patel v. Politico LLC et al (Report). United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. 2019. Case 3:19-cv-00879-MHL, Exhibit 1. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  19. ^ a b c d "Kashyap P. Patel, Esq". defense.gov. U.S. Department of Defense. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  20. ^ a b c Haniffa, Aziz (February 10, 2018). "Push Back on Capitol Hill Over Claims of 'Kash' Patel as the Primary Author of the Controversial Memo". India Abroad. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  21. ^ Ignatius, David (April 17, 2021). "How Kash Patel rose from obscure Hill staffer to key operative in Trump's battle with the intelligence community". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 18, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
  22. ^ a b c d e Barnes, Julian E.; Goldman, Adam; Fandos, Nicholas (October 23, 2019). "White House Aides Feared That Trump Had Another Ukraine Back Channel". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
  23. ^ Snell, Kelsey (November 6, 2018). "Election Results Give Split Decision: Democrats Win House & GOP Keeps Senate Majority". NPR. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  24. ^ "Kash Patel - Biography". www.legistorm.com. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  25. ^ a b c d Bertrand, Natasha (October 23, 2019). "Nunes protégé fed Ukraine info to Trump". Politico. Archived from the original on October 24, 2019. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
  26. ^ Swan, Betsy (July 31, 2019). "Nunes Ally Kash Patel Who Fought Russia Probe Gets Senior White House National Security Job". The Daily Beast. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  27. ^ "White House official held secret talks in Syria to free US citizens". Jerusalem Post. Reuters. October 19, 2020. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  28. ^ Lippman, Daniel (February 20, 2020). "NSC aide who worked to discredit Russia probe moves to senior ODNI post". POLITICO. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  29. ^ Jha, Lalit K (December 17, 2020). "Indian-American Pentagon official Kash Patel sues CNN, seeks USD 50 mn for defamation". Yahoo. Press Trust of India. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  30. ^ Roy, Shubhajit (February 23, 2020). "Trump's visit: Two Indian-Americans part of US President's 16-member delegation". India Abroad. Archived from the original on March 13, 2020. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  31. ^ a b Duttagupta, Ishani (February 15, 2020). "US President's delegation to India may include several Indian American officials". Economic Times. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  32. ^ a b c "Report of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Pursuant to H. Res. 660 in Consultation with the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs" (PDF). United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. December 3, 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 4, 2019. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
  33. ^ "CBS News Exclusive: White House staffer Kash Patel denies he was back channel to Trump on Ukraine". CBS News. December 5, 2019. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  34. ^ Falconer, Rebecca (December 5, 2019). "NSC staffer tells CBS phone call with Giuliani listed in impeachment report was "personal"". Axios. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  35. ^ a b Irby, Kate (November 18, 2019). "Devin Nunes' lawyer files another defamation lawsuit, this time for White House official". Fresno Bee. McClatchy. Archived from the original on December 27, 2020. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  36. ^ Patel v Politico, LLC et al (Report). Circuit Court of Henrico County, Virginia. CL19006745-00.
  37. ^ a b c Swan, Jonathan (January 18, 2021). "Episode 5: The secret CIA plan". Axios. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  38. ^ "Indian-American Kash Patel Named Chief Of Staff To Acting US Defence Secretary". NDTV. Press Trust of India. November 11, 2020. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  39. ^ "More Top Pentagon Officials Out After Trump Sacks Esper". Foreign Policy magazine. November 10, 2020. Archived from the original on February 12, 2021. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  40. ^ Ward, Alex (November 11, 2020). "Why Trump is suddenly replacing Pentagon officials with loyalists". Vox. Archived from the original on February 23, 2021. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  41. ^ Volz, Dustin (December 20, 2020). "Defense Officials Push Proposal to Separate NSA, Cyber Command". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  42. ^ Cheney, Kyle (November 30, 2022). "Meet the legal nerd who MAGA bigwigs are turning to for help". POLITICO.
  43. ^ Sadie Gurman; Alex Leary (November 2, 2022). "Trump Aide, Granted Immunity, Set to Testify at Grand Jury Probing Mar-a-Lago Documents". The Wall Street Journal.
  44. ^ Howell, Hugo (November 4, 2022). "Top Trump adviser granted immunity testifies in Mar-a-Lago papers case". The Guardian.
  45. ^ Goldstein, Matthew (April 25, 2022). "Trump Media adds former Devin Nunes aides, Donald Jr. and "Apprentice" contestant as officers". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  46. ^ Lowell, Hugo (May 16, 2022). "Former Trump official Kash Patel writes children's book repeating false claim over Steele dossier". The Guardian, US Edition. Guardian News & Media Limited. Archived from the original on May 21, 2022. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  47. ^ "The Plot Against the King". Brave Books. Archived from the original on May 16, 2022. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  48. ^ Bump, Philip (August 15, 2022). "Analysis - http which Democrats called timing of Trump naming two allies to access his records suspicious". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
  49. ^ a b Fortinsky, Sarah (December 5, 2023). "Bannon, Patel say Trump 'dead serious' about revenge on media: 'We're going to come after you'". The Hill.
  50. ^ Jonathan Swan; Maggie Haberman; Charlie Savage (December 4, 2023). "How Trump and His Allies Plan to Wield Power in 2025". The New York Times.
  51. ^ Mike Allen; Jim VandeHei (December 7, 2023). "Behind the Curtain — Exclusive: How Trump would build his loyalty-first Cabinet". Axios.
  52. ^ Zaretsky, Staci (January 17, 2014). "Very Prestigious Lawyers Are Selling Themselves To Women For The Highest Price". Above the Law. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  53. ^ Rogers, Katie; Rosenberg, Matthew (February 2, 2018). "Kashyap Patel, Main Author of Secret Memo, Is No Stranger to Quarrels". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2021.