Kash Patel

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.[4][6] As a public defender he represented clients charged with felonies including international drug trafficking, murder, firearms violations, and bulk cash smuggling.[6][7]

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.[4][7] 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.[6]

In 2017, Patel was appointed senior counsel on counterterrorism at the House Select Committee on Intelligence.[4][5][lower-alpha 1]

During the presidency of Donald Trump, Patel held several staff positions in the White House, including as Principal Deputy to the Acting Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).[7][9] 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.[4][10]

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.[11][12] Patel denied the claims and, the following month, sued Politico for defamation, seeking $25 million in damages.[11][lower-alpha 2]

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.[14][15][lower-alpha 3]

In January 2021, Axios reported that Trump had considered Patel for appointment as Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency to replace Gina Haspel.[2][16] 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.[2][16] In an interview with Vanity Fair, Ezra Cohen-Watnick confirmed parts of the Axios's report. Patel declined to comment.[2][16]

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.[17]

AEI policy director Kori Schake argued that although Patel and others were "unconfirmable", the shakeup was primarily a matter of "spite" toward the Pentagon establishment.[18] Foreign Policy magazine connected the move to Trump's "refusal to accept the election results".[19] 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.[20] 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.[2] Another source reported to the magazine that Patel was the most influential person in the U.S. government on matters of national security.[2]

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.[21][22]