Kash Patel

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Kash Patel
File:Kashyap P. Patel.jpg
Personal details
Born Kashyap Pramod Patel
(1980-02-25) February 25, 1980 (age 45)
Garden City, New York, U.S.
Political party Republican
Education University of Richmond (BA)
Pace University (JD)

Kashyap Pramod Patel (born February 25, 1980) [1] is an American attorney and former government official. He served as chief of staff to the Acting United States Secretary of Defense under President Donald Trump. Patel has worked at the United States National Security Council and United States House of Representatives and was previously a federal public defender, a federal prosecutor working on national security cases, and a legal liaison to the United States Armed Forces. He is a Republican.[2] Patel has widely been described as a "Trump loyalist".[3][4][5] As aide to Devin Nunes, Patel played a key role in helping Republican attempts to discredit the investigations into Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election.[6][4]

Early life and education

Kashyap "Kash" Patel was born in Garden City, New York, to ethnically Gujarati parents who had immigrated to the United States from East Africa, via Canada, in 1970.[7] He graduated from the University of Richmond in 2002 and earned a Juris Doctor from Pace University School of Law in 2005.[7][8] He also received a certificate in international law from University College London.[9]

Career

Early career

After graduating from law school, 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.[8][10] As a public defender he represented clients charged with felonies including international drug trafficking, murder, firearms violations, and bulk cash smuggling.[10][11]

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.[8][11] During this period he was embedded with a special mission unit at a "secure facility" and, in 2015, received a commendation from the Central Intelligence Agency.[10] In 2017, Patel was appointed senior counsel on counterterrorism at the House Select Committee on Intelligence.[8][9][lower-alpha 1]

Aide to Devin Nunes

He was an aide to Devin Nunes who chaired the House Intelligence Committee.[3][6] during which Patel played a prominent role in promoting the Republicans discreditation in the investigations into Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election, in particular connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.[6][4] He was the primary author of the Nunes memo which alleged that the FBI was biased against Trump.[6][5][lower-alpha 2] The New York Times reported that the memo was widely dismissed as "biased" containing "cherry-picked facts" though "it galvanized President Trump’s allies and made Mr. Patel a hero among them".[13]

White House

After the leadership changeover of the House of Representatives, Patel was hired as a staffer for President Trump's National Security Council. Patel held several staff positions in the Donald Trump administration, including as Principal Deputy to the Acting Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).[11][14] Patel has widely been described as a "Trump loyalist".[3][4][5]

Trump-Ukraine scandal

Within months of his appointment, 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.[13][15] Politico reports this position was actually created specifically for Patel.[15] Red flags were raised when President Trump referred to Patel as "one of his top Ukraine policy specialists" and as such wished "to discuss related documents with him".[13] Patel's actual assignment has been counter-terrorism issues, rather than Ukraine. He was thought to have operated independently of Giuliani's irregular, informal channel. Impeachment inquiry witnesses have been asked what they know about Patel. Fiona Hill told investigators that it seems "Patel was improperly becoming involved in Ukraine policy and was sending information to Mr. Trump."[13] Sondland and Kent testified they did not come across Patel in the course of their work.[13]

On December 3, 2019, the House Intelligence Committee's report included phone records, acquired via subpoenas to AT&T and/or Verizon Wireless, including a 25-minute phone call between Patel and Giuliani on May 10, 2019.[16]: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.[16]:58 Five minutes after the 25-minute call between Giuliani and Patel, an unidentified "-1" phone number called Giuliani for over 17 minutes, after which Giuliani called his now-indicted associate Lev Parnas for approximately 12 minutes.[16]: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",[17] and that his call with Giuliani was "personal".[18]

In an October 2019 story, Politico, citing an anonymous source it reported had formerly worked at the White House, wrote that Patel had unusually "unique access" to Donald Trump, had provided "out of scope" advice to him on United States Ukraine policy and that his position on the NSC had been created specifically for him.[19][20] Patel denied the claims and, the following month, sued Politico for defamation, seeking $25 million in damages.[19][lower-alpha 3]

Other

Patel was the main author of a January 2018 House Intelligence Committee report which detailed how the FBI falsified information in its application for a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for electronic surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.[22]

In June 2019, he was appointed senior director of the Counterterrorism Directorate at the United States National Security Council (NSC); according to the Wall Street Journal, he 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.[8][23] In February 2020, 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.[24][25][lower-alpha 4]

Reported move to lead CIA

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][26] 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][26] In an interview with Vanity Fair, Ezra Cohen-Watnick confirmed parts of the Axios report. Patel declined to comment.[1][26]

U.S. Department of Defense

File:Kash Patel and Chris Miller 210114-D-BN624-0319 (50836026918).jpg
Patel traveling with Acting Secretary Miller

In November 2020, Patel was made chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller, a move that followed the dismissal of Mark Esper.[27] Patel reportedly encouraged Trump to fire Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, arguing that Esper was disloyal to Trump by refusing to deploy military troops to Washington to quell the George Floyd protests.[6]

AEI policy director Kori Schake argued that although neither Patel nor others were "confirmable", the shakeup was primarily a matter of "spite" toward the Pentagon establishment.[28] Foreign Policy magazine connected the move to Trump's "refusal to accept the election results".[29] 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.[30] 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 reported to the magazine that Patel was the most influential person in the U.S. government on matters of national security.[1]

After the contentious 2020 election, Patel reportedly blocked some Department of Defense officials from helping the Biden administration transition according to NBC.[3] 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.[31][32]

Personal life

Patel resides in the District of Columbia.[10] He plays ice hockey.[11] 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,[33] but he withdrew from the auction after a blogger noted his Florida law license was out of date.[34]

Notes

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References

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  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.


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