A retired FBI special agent on Sunday issued a dire warning about Kash Patel, a loyal ally to Donald Trump that the president-elect is reportedly eyeing to become the agency’s new director.
“He has no experience leading an organization, no less a Cub Scout pack, to put him in front of the lead law enforcement agency in the United States — and some consider the world — to have him in charge of so many employees,” said Daniel Brunner in an interview with CNN’s Jessica Dean.
Trump is considering firing FBI Director Christopher Wray and ending his 10-year term early in order to pave the way to nominate Patel to the post, CNN reported on Friday.
The move would sing to the tune of the president-elect’s interest in filling government roles with loyalists to go after his perceived enemies.
Brunner told Dean that Patel — who served as chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack — lacks experience for the post and he’d instead follow Trump’s revenge-seeking orders.
“You’re in charge of tens of thousands of employees, both special agents, analysts, everyone that is enforcing the law, federal law that is on the books and supporting the Constitution of the United States,” he said.
“Putting someone like Kash Patel in the position of director of the FBI is, I believe, extremely, extremely dangerous because you just alluded to that his résumé isn’t traditional.”
Brunner added that Patel has “clearly stated” that he wants to “exact revenge” on those who have investigated Trump and his allies.
Patel, during an August appearance on the right-wing Real America’s Voice network, suggested that Republicans bring FBI officials “up on contempt of Congress charges” before entertaining how he’d lead the agency.
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“One of my biggest personal recommendations is you shut down the FBI headquarters building and open it up the next day as the Museum of the Deep State,” Patel said.
Brunner warned that Patel would inflict a “massive amount of damage” to the FBI’s interior along with employees who have put their names on “certain documents.”
“There will be hundreds of employees who will be unjustly fired or have their security clearances removed only because he feels that it’s something he needs to do. So I think he’ll be very, very dangerous,” he said.