On December 1st, President-elect Donald Trump selected Kash Patel to be nominated to lead the FBI. Read for general information – statistics at the end reveal public opinion of government organizations.
Who is Kash Patel
According to his biography published by the U.S. Department of Defense, Patel has served in numerous roles through the U.S. Government and Justice system. Patel graduated from the University of Richmond with his undergrad and later earned his law degree from Pace University in New York. Patel also has a certificate in international law from the University College London Faculty of Laws in the United Kingdom.
Patel began his professional career in Florida as a public defender trying cases on murder, narcotic-trafficking, and financial crimes in both state and federal courts. He also served as terrorism prosecutor for the DOJ, and the National Security Advisor & Senior Counsel for the HPSCI. During Trump’s first presidential term, Patel worked as the Principal Deputy to the acting Director of National Intelligence, the Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the NSC, and the Deputy Assistant to the President. Within these roles, Patel oversaw the execution of Trump’s top priorities such as eliminating ISIS and Al-Qaida’s leadership and provided the President’s Daily Briefing.
NPR confirmed that Patel worked as a congressional aide in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. During his first term, Trump wanted to nominate Patel for the senior role in the CIA, but it was not confirmed by the Senate who essentially has the final say in presidential nominations.
Why was Patel chosen
Patel has vocalized a vast opposition to the “deep state”, signifying his belief that governmental organizations like the FBI are corrupt. Since the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago, Trump has shared similar beliefs and vouched to largely reform these organizations once in office.
So far, Patel has stated that he will initiate a downsizing of the FBI, CIA and NSA. There are currently around 40,000 employees within these organizations located in 55 US field offices. There are 350 satellite offices with 60 foreign locations that cover the span of nearly 200 countries. Patel has vouched to downsize these offices and transfer more agents into the field. With that, Patel also hopes to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This gives the FBI certain degrees of surveillance authority.
Who has endorsed this nomination
Since the Trump investigations, the FBI has had a rather unfavorable presence within Republican circles, as stated by AXIOS. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa largely supported Trump’s nomination, saying that the US needs people who are going to shake up these government organizations. Other senators who have endorsed Patel include Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
At the end of the day, Patel will need nearly all of the votes from Republican Senators to be confirmed.
What about the current FBI Director
Christopher Wray has served as the Director of FBI since 2017, after being nominated by president-elect Donald Trump.
He graduated from Yale University and obtained his law degree from Yale Law School. Wray first worked as the Assistant US Attorney in the DOJ for the Northern District of Georgia in 1997. While there, he prosecuted cases involving gun trafficking, drug offenses and financial fraud. Wray has also served as the Associate Deputy Attorney General in D.C.
In 2003, Wray was nominated by former president George W. Bush to be the Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s criminal division. He has also overseen the Counterterrorism Section and the Counterintelligence & Export Control Section.
The term for FBI Director lasts 10 years. Wray technically has until 2027 to fulfill his office, unless replaced by a presidential nomination and Senate confirmation.
Public opinion
Back in 2022, Gallup conducted a survey that captured the public’s job ratings of government agencies and departments from 2019-2021. Some of these organizations included the CDD, CIA, FBI, IRS, EPA and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In 2019, the CIA had a 60% positive job rating but was dropped to 41% in 2021.
In 2019, the FBI had a 57% positive job rating but was dropped to 44% in 2021.
Overall, 79% of Democrats in 2021 said the FBI was doing a good job and 29% of Republicans said likewise.
Later in 2023, Gallup conducted another survey that analyzed the public’s general rating of similar groups but for the sake of this article, I list the results for the FBI and CIA. The surveyors were not questioned according to party instead, they were grouped together for a broad consensus. They were asked whether they believed these organizations were performing their jobs “excellently” “good” “fair” and “poor”.
For the FBI: 10% said excellent, 36% said good, 25% said fair, 28% said poor.
For the CIA: 11% said excellent, 35% said good, 29% said fair, 24% said poor.
This year, Pew Research conducted a survey regarding whether people believed the DOJ, FBI and CIA had performed favorably or unfavorably. This survey separated Republican answers from Democrat answers.
DOJ: 56% of Republicans said “unfavorably” and 32% of Democrats said likewise.
FBI: 50% of Republicans said “unfavorably” and 17% of Democrats said likewise.
CIA: 45% of Republicans said “unfavorably” and 22% of Democrats said likewise.
The statistics of people overall who said “favorable” are as follows:
FBI: 51%
CIA: 44%
DOJ: 43%
Another survey is cited below from the American Public Media (APM) Research Lab in 2023. They partnered with the McCourtney Institute of Democracy.
Do you support president-elect Trump’s nomination? Should current FBI Director Christopher Wray be ousted? Does Patel have the experience to take on this role? Will the proposed reforms damage these organizations and the US Justice system? That is for you to decide.
Research:
Katelyn is a student at Howard Payne University, studying public policy in the Guy D. Newman Honors Academy with a secondary major in global studies. She aspires to inform readers of major legislative, political and humanitarian activity in laymen terms, in order to supply the general public with an unbiased analysis that allows them to cultivate opinions by their own free will.