A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President-elect Trump says he'll nominate ally Kash Patel to serve as the next director of the FBI.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
That's setting up a move to replace the current director, Chris Wray, whom Trump appointed during his first term in office. FBI directors serve for 10 years, and Wray has two years left on his term. Patel has been a fierce critic of the country's top law enforcement agency and has been vocal about his plans to change it.
MARTÍNEZ: We're joined now by NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson. So, Carrie, tell us more about Kash Patel. What are his qualifications for this job?
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Patel worked as a public defender and as a federal prosecutor for a while, but he's really best known for his unyielding loyalty to Donald Trump, and he's been controversial even among some Trump supporters. Patel's falsely said Trump won the 2020 election. He's helped raise doubts about the investigation of Russian election interference in 2016. And for a time, he served as an aide in the Pentagon during Trump's first term. But when Trump first proposed the idea of installing Patel at the FBI back in those days, then-Attorney General Bill Barr said it would be over his dead body because Patel did not have the qualifications for a job that important and that sensitive.
MARTÍNEZ: And Patel has not been shy about being vocal about what he sees are problems with the Justice Department and the FBI. So what's he been saying about those institutions?
JOHNSON: Patel's been clear about wanting to clean house inside the DOJ and the FBI top ranks. Here's what he had to say earlier this year on the podcast "The Sean Ryan Show."
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "SEAN RYAN SHOW")
KASH PATEL: I'd shut down the FBI Hoover building on Day 1 and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state. And I'd take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals.
JOHNSON: Patel says he wants to shrink the government and do the same thing at the DOJ. He's also said he's ready to use law enforcement power to go after people who oppose Trump with prosecutions and civil lawsuits, and that could include members of Congress, people who prosecuted Donald Trump and reporters.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, FBI director is a 10-year job. There's already someone at that job, Carrie, so what might happen to this person?
JOHNSON: That's right. Trump chose Chris Wray, a Republican and a member of the conservative Federalist Society, after Trump fired Jim Comey in 2017. It's been rare to fire an FBI director with time left on his term, but it has happened before. And now, it's not clear whether Wray would stick around to be fired in January or whether he might resign first. Over the weekend, the FBI said Chris Wray, the director, is focused on the FBI workforce and on protecting the American people from threats. Now, a couple of weeks ago, Wray attended an event for FBI agents where he got a lot of praise for leading the bureau through a political storm and for focusing on the facts.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, becoming FBI director requires approval from the Senate. So what's the reaction been so far from lawmakers?
JOHNSON: Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican in line to lead the judiciary committee next year, did not explicitly offer support for or against Patel. Grassley said on X he wants to see more transparency from the FBI, and he says Patel needs to prove to the Senate he's ready to reform the agency and restore public trust. But other lawmakers did not sound so sure. Republican senators are going to have the power to sink this choice, just as they did recently with the idea of putting Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz in charge of the Justice Department. And for their part, Democrats on Capitol Hill say Trump is following through on his campaign threat to try to turn the Justice Department into a political operation bent on revenge. Even if Kash Patel does not make it through the process to become the FBI director, this choice signals the DOJ and the FBI are in for a very rough ride next year.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Carrie Johnson. Carrie, thanks.
JOHNSON: My pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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