Trump Nominates Loyalist Patel For FBI Director

US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated a former aide, Kash Patel, to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an agency Patel has often criticised.

A former US defence department chief of staff in the first Trump administration, Patel has been a steadfast supporter of the incoming Republican president.

For Patel to take the job, the current FBI director Christopher Wray would need to resign or be fired – although Trump did not call on him to do so in his post.

Separately, Trump said he plans to nominate Chad Chronister, sheriff of Florida’s Hillsborough County, as head of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Patel and Chronister join Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi in filling out Trump’s law enforcement picks.

Patel is Trump loyalist who shares the president-elect’s suspicion of government institutions.

“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice, and protecting the American people,” Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform, adding that Patel was “an advocate for truth, accountability, and the constitution”.

His past proposals have included “dramatically” limiting the FBI’s authority. In his memoir, Government Gangsters, Patel called for an eradication of what he called “government tyranny” within the FBI by firing “the top ranks”.

Patel would replace current FBI director Christopher Wray, who Trump appointed in 2017 for a 10-year term.

In a statement following Trump’s announcement, the FBI said: “Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats.

“Director Wray’s focus remains on the men and women of the FBI, the people we do the work with, and the people we do the work for.”

The son of Indian immigrants, Patel is a former defence lawyer and federal prosecutor who caught Trump’s eye after he became a senior counsel to the House of Representatives intelligence committee in 2017.

BBC/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma