Kash Patel Confirmed to 10-Year Term as FBI Director

Exactly one month after the historic inauguration of President Trump’s second term, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the FBI 51 to 49.

The exceptions to the party-line vote were Republican Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who joined Democrats to oppose the former Trump administration official.

In a surprise to some, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) cast his vote in support of Patel. The former senate majority leader previously voted ‘no’ to the nominations of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and DOD Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Political watchers say that Patel’s nomination was among the most contentious of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees, along with Gabbard and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

The newly-minted FBI director – who previously starred in the new War Room documentary “Government Gangsters” which “pulls back the curtain on the sinister world of corrupt bureaucrats, government officials, and their media accomplices” – said the Democratic Party and the media’s coverup of Biden’s diminished capabilities to carry out the job as commander in chief before pushing the incumbent out of the 2024 race and inserting Harris as the nominee is the “absolute form of governing gangsterism.”

Kash Patel served as the Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of Defense in the first Trump administration. Before that, his Department of Defense biography notes he was the Deputy Assistant to the President and the Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council (NSC). In this role, he managed efforts that led to the elimination of prominent terrorist leaders, including ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Al-Qaeda figure Qasem al-Rimi, while also working to bring numerous American hostages safely back home. Additionally, Patel served as the Principal Deputy to the Acting Director of National Intelligence, where he coordinated the activities of all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies and delivered the President’s Daily Briefing.

Patel, a native of New York, earned is law degree in 2005. After practicing law as a public defender, he joined the department of justice where he was recruited to serve as the senior aide to House Intelligence Committee chair Devon Nunes in 2017.

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Christina Botteri is the Executive Editor of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow her on X at @christinakb.
Photo “Kash Patel” by Gage Skidmore CC2.0.