CNN
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Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, has for years battled US intelligence agencies over the handling of some of the government’s most sensitive national security secrets.
As a Republican congressional aide and Trump national security staffer, Patel fought to declassify and release documents to try to undercut the FBI’s investigation into connections between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.
If confirmed, Patel would be in position to reignite his fight with the US intelligence community from one of the most powerful perches in Washington.
The FBI plays a significant role in US intelligence, one that Patel seems poised to redefine in unprecedented ways. He’s accused the FBI and intelligence agencies of carrying out a “deep state” plot targeting Trump and his allies — including himself — and called for a major overhaul of both.
Patel has even suggested that the FBI should scale back its intelligence activities and instead focus on law enforcement. “Go be cops,” he said in a podcast interview last fall.
Diminishing the FBI’s intelligence responsibilities would roll back significant reforms made in response to the 9/11 attacks, when the government failed to connect clear pieces of intelligence across multiple agencies, seen as a major failing in the lead-up to the attack.
As Patel prepares for his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday, his feuds with intelligence officials will be front and center.
More than any other nominee in recent memory, Patel’s battles with the very agency he is poised to run have defined his rise to political prominence. He frequently rails against a litany of alleged abuses by intelligence agencies and the FBI, from the conclusion that Russia helped Trump in the 2016 election to the FBI’s seizure of classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Patel’s views on the use of federal surveillance and government classification procedures aren’t just ideological, they’re personal. Patel has had his communications surveilled without his knowledge and has even sued Trump-era appointees, including Christopher Wray, the man he would be replacing as FBI director, for unfairly obtaining his data.
But the distrust between Patel and intelligence officials goes both ways. That came to a head in 2020 when the CIA referred Patel, then a top Trump national security aide, to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation.
The referral, the details of which have not been previously reported, was made in the closing months of the first Trump administration, when the CIA asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Patel shared classified information about the Russia probe with people in the government not authorized to see it, four people briefed on the matter told CNN.
The CIA claimed in its referral Patel circulated a memo in 2020 to people inside the US government about Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, two of the sources told CNN. The spy agency had not authorized that information to be released or declassified, and some of the people who received the memo didn’t have the proper level of clearance to see its contents, the sources said.
Patel was never charged criminally, and there’s no indication that national security prosecutors who reviewed the referral at the Justice Department took action to escalate the case beyond an initial investigation. The investigation by career Justice prosecutors continued for months into the Biden administration before fizzling out, as happens with most referrals of this kind.
Former national security lawyers say it would be rare to bring a case involving alleged violations for sharing information inside the government. Patel denies that he mishandled classified documents.
In addition to the referral, a “flag” was placed in Patel’s security clearance file by intelligence officials who wanted to document their broader concerns about Patel and recommend him for further investigation, according to sources familiar with the move.
Another person familiar with the matter said flags are commonly placed in security clearance files of people who have been referred for criminal investigation. The flag remains on Patel’s file inside the FBI’s clearance database, according to people familiar with it.
Ahead of Patel’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, requested documents from the Justice Department and intelligence community “reflecting or relating to allegations of misconduct by Mr. Patel, including referrals to DOJ or claims related to his tenure” at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Arjun Mody, a Trump transition spokesman, said in a statement to CNN: “The leaking of years old bogus referrals is evidence our government is in desperate need of reform.”
“It’s ironic that the same people who try to stir up the phony narrative that Kash would abuse power are the very ones abusing power to attempt to damage Kash,” he added. “Kash has handled some of nation’s most sensitive material and continues to hold a top-secret security clearance. Any assertion that he’s mishandled classified information is false.”
The CIA, Justice Department and FBI declined to comment.
Interviews with more than a dozen current and former officials, including several people close to Patel as well as former Trump officials who worked with him, offer insight into the personal animus he feels toward the FBI, as well as how his long-running feud with the intelligence community could shape his priorities and management of the bureau.
“Kash is like every person who comes up for these big roles that have prosecutorial and investigative powers — he’s going to have to answer tough questions,” a person who worked with Patel in Trump’s National Security Council told CNN.
Patel’s nomination reflects his rapid rise from a DOJ lawyer and congressional aide to a star in the MAGA universe, fueled largely by his efforts to discredit the FBI’s 2016 Russia investigation into the Trump campaign. Patel played a key role in the House Intelligence Committee’s work to undercut the FBI probe and the bureau’s misuse of FISA warrants. He then joined Trump’s National Security Council and was a senior adviser at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. At ODNI, Patel worked to declassify documents related to the Russia investigation.
In his responses to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee in preparation for his nomination, Patel called his work investigating the Russia probe “the most significant legal” activity of his career.
Though some in the intelligence community view Patel with suspicion, several of his allies defended his professionalism and handling of classified information during the previous Trump administration.
Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former national security adviser, worked closely with Patel on the National Security Council and told CNN that Patel handled highly classified information “with the utmost care.”
“Any suggestion otherwise is clearly false,” O’Brien said. “Kash helped secure the homeland during the Trump administration, and it’s sad that people are now smearing him as he prepares to lead the FBI as its director.”
Others who worked with Patel in the White House told CNN they never discussed the politically charged topics he has often focused on during public interviews and in campaign speeches.
“Those aren’t the kind of conversations I ever had with Kash,” said the person who worked with Patel at the NSC. “We didn’t talk politics. We talked covert action and intel collection and hostage recovery. … We talked substantive, serious things.”
Inside the FBI, sources say the initial shock of Patel’s nomination has worn off as officials take a more nuanced view of the potential of him leading the bureau, officials told CNN. Some FBI employees have updated their resumes and LinkedIn profiles in anticipation of having to leave. Others are hoping that Patel softens some of his tone once, if confirmed, he arrives at the FBI.
“I’m not saying he’s the best person to run the organization, but I think he’ll be all right once he gets in and meets the people and understands the culture,” one FBI employee said.
The Trump administration has already begun moving several officials into roles at the FBI anticipating Patel’s arrival, including a former top staffer of House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, one of the bureau’s harshest critics. Jordan led a subcommittee focused on so-called weaponization of the FBI and other agencies.
Some FBI employees say that for the vast majority of agents and analysts, including people working on criminal and intelligence investigations that have nothing to do with politics, the sharp change of leadership likely won’t affect them.
But some are concerned about Patel’s comments suggesting he may diminish the FBI’s intelligence role, which Patel has proposed as part of an overhaul of the FBI’s bureaucracy. The intelligence and criminal sides of the FBI are closely knit, a reform made after the 9/11 attacks exposed vulnerabilities from having criminal investigators walled off from intelligence that might have helped detect the hijackers’ plot.
“The biggest problem the FBI has had, has come out of its intel shops. I’d break that component out of it,” Patel said in a September interview on the conservative “Shawn Ryan Show.” “And I’d take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops. You’re cops. Go be cops.”
Mody, the transition spokesman, said, “Kash Patel thinks the FBI’s intelligence component serves an important purpose and wants to ensure that it is doing its job properly.”
The tension between Patel and the intelligence agencies can be traced back to the 2017 intelligence community assessment that Russia sought to help Trump win the 2016 election — a conclusion he and other Trump allies dispute.
Both as a GOP Hill staffer and a Trump national security official, Patel pushed for the release of classified materials that the FBI, CIA and NSA used to arrive at the 2017 assessment.
CIA officials, in particular, were concerned during Trump’s first administration about efforts to release classified information related to Russian election interference, believing disclosure could jeopardize sensitive sources and methods relevant to ongoing intelligence operations, the sources said.
In 2018, when Patel was a senior congressional aide for House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, Republicans on the committee drafted a classified report that scrutinized the intelligence used to make the assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin had tried to help Trump in the 2016 election. The GOP report accused the Obama administration of skewing the intelligence to reach that conclusion.
Patel’s 2020 memo that sparked the CIA’s referral distilled information from the classified committee report, sources said.
Another source familiar with the matter recalled instances where Patel’s behavior as a Hill staffer and while working in the first Trump administration raised eyebrows among some career officials and political appointees at the CIA. One example occurred when Patel was working on the House Intelligence Committee and attempted to personally serve Trump’s then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo a subpoena related to the committee’s probe into the Russia investigation, a source familiar with the encounter said.
Said Mody, the transition spokesman: “Mr. Patel believes in the separation of powers. He will be guided by the Constitution in the FBI’s work.”
In his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters,” Patel wrote while there are legitimate reasons for the government to classify records, “too frequently agencies classify documents to hide their own corruption.”
“They’ll bandy out that infamous line that says, ‘You are jeopardizing national security by asking for this information — people are going to die,’” Patel said in a September 2022 episode of his podcast, “Kash’s Corner.”
“They tried that with us,” Patel continued. “And as a national security prosecutor, I said, ‘No, there’s a way to do this correctly and lawfully and ethically, so show us the documentation, and then we will release what’s appropriate.’ And we did that. No one died. No relationship was ruined. No source was jeopardized. But they will say that to cover up their corruption.”
Patel’s animus toward the FBI has also been fueled by an investigation that secretly swept up his communications along with dozens of other congressional staffers, lawmakers and journalists. The probe sought to identify sources of alleged leaks of classified information to the media, and did not target Patel specifically. But it prompted Patel to file a lawsuit in 2023 against Wray and other Trump-era government officials for obtaining his data.
Details of those leak investigations came to light in an inspector general’s report released late last year and have fueled some of Patel’s anger toward the Justice Department and FBI. Patel continues to believe that federal authorities are monitoring his communications and remains cautious about discussing matters over the phone – even with those closest to him, one source familiar with the matter told CNN.
Patel’s Democratic critics warn that he will do Trump’s bidding to investigate Trump’s perceived political enemies and those who have prosecuted him. Patel has previously called for the leaders of the FBI’s Russia probe to be prosecuted, and he said in a 2023 interview with conservative podcast host and Trump ally Steve Bannon that a Trump DOJ would “go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media.”
“Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections — we’re going to come after you,” Patel said.
In his first week in office, Trump signed an executive order directing his Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to open broad investigations into Biden administration “weaponization” of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
As he met with lawmakers on the Hill ahead of Thursday’s confirmation hearing, Patel appeared to try to assuage concerns about the idea that he will use the FBI to target Trump’s political enemies.
Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, was asked after his meeting with Patel if Trump’s FBI pick would use the bureau to go after political enemies. Fetterman responded he was convinced “that’s never going to happen.”
But Patel will almost certainly face questions about those previous comments during his confirmation hearing. Several Democrats already raised the issue — including Patel drafting a list of 60 “deep state” officials in his book — during the confirmation hearing for Trump’s attorney general pick, Pam Bondi.
Bondi, who would work closely with the FBI director if confirmed, defended Patel’s credentials, while suggesting at several points that senators should pose their questions to him when he testified before the panel.
Beyond his calls for prosecutions, Patel has said that he wants to see the FBI release more documents related to the Russia probe — including documents that were declassified in the final hours of the Trump presidency but never released publicly.
“Put out the documents. Put out the evidence. We only have gotten halfway down the Russiagate hole,” Patel said on Fox News in November, before he was tapped to lead the FBI. “The people need to know that their FBI is restored by knowing full well what they did to unlawfully surveil them.”
