The writer, an FBI agent for 31 years, retired as resident agent in charge of the Ann Arbor, Michigan office in 2006. He has a law degree from the University of Nebraska College of Law. He is the author of "FBI Case Files Michigan: Tales of a G-Man."
By Greg Stejskal
On October 15th, President Trump held a press conference in the Oval Office. He was flanked by the three highest ranking officials from the Department of Justice: Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Director of the FBI Kash(yap) Patel.
Deadline Detroit illustration via AI
At the conference, Trump listed some people he wanted prosecuted: Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought two criminal indictments against him; Andrew Weissman, a former FBI counsel and lead prosecutor on the Mueller investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible connection to the Trump campaign; Lisa Monaco, the deputy Attorney General during the Biden administration.
Trump elaborated, “Deranged Jack Smith, in my opinion, is a criminal.” The three most powerful law enforcement people in the country seemed to agree. This despite Trump not offering anything that would elevate his opinion to probable cause or even a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.
Jack Smith
Other presidents have illicitly used agencies of the government to audit or investigate their political opponents, but nothing so public or blatant as this. Presumably Trump has been somewhat emboldened by the Supreme Court decision granting him as president “sovereign immunity.”
Following the press conference, Kash Patel said, “These indictments you’ve seen (referring to the indictments of Former Director of the FBI James Comey and Letitia James New York AG) and the ones that you’re going to see coming up in the near future are just the beginning.”
As a retired 31-year veteran of the FBI, it is disheartening and frightening to see the Director of the FBI as an obsequious courtier to Trump’s vindictive prosecutive whims. How did this happen?
The Wizard Becomes Director
FBI Director Kash Patel (Official photo)
Kash Patel’s first adversarial interaction with the FBI was when he was a staffer on the House Intelligence Committee chaired by Devin Nunes. The committee was investigating the origins of the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In 2018 at the behest of Nunes, Patel was the primary author of the so-called Nunes memorandum.
The memo’s two main conclusions were: The FBI relied on the discredited Steele dossier as the rationale for initiating their investigation, and the FBI’s investigation was politically motivated and biased. Patel wrote in the memo, “The fake dossier was the linchpin for the whole operation (referring to the FBI investigation).”
But it wasn’t. When the FBI opened its investigation in July 2016, it was not aware of the Steele dossier and didn’t learn of it until September 2016. And after learning of the Steele dossier, FBI investigators were skeptical of its findings.
John Durham
Both of the Nunes memo’s conclusions were refuted by the DOJ Inspector General, Michael Horowitz’ report and by a multi-volumed report of the bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee chaired by then Senator Marco Rubio. Later Special Council John Durham, appointed by Trump’s first term AG William Barr, after a 3.5-year investigation, found no political bias on the part of the FBI and its initiation of the case was warranted.
Despite the inaccuracies in the Nunes memo, then President Trump embraced its conclusions which bolstered his false claims that the Russian investigation was a hoax despite it resulting in 34 indictments. Nunes recommended Patel to Trump for a White House job on the National Security Council, and Trump hired him. Thus began Patel’s personal relationship with Trump.
In 2020 Trump ran for reelection but lost. He never conceded the election and began claiming that somehow the election was rigged and stolen by the Democrats. In the five years since that election, no credible evidence has been presented that the election was rigged or stolen. Despite not having any evidence, Trump has never backed off his claim, and Patel has been fully onboard with Trump as an election denier.
Kash Patel's book
Following Trump’s defeat, Patel wrote several children’s books, “The Plot Against the King” and sequels. The first book begins, “Once upon a time, in the land of Free, there lived a wizard called Kash the Distinguished Discoverer.” Patel as the author was described in a book promotion as “A key player in the uncovering of one of the nation’s biggest injustices tells the whole story for kids.” The injustice referred to was the investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possibly conspiring with the Trump campaign – what Patel refers to as “Russia Gate.”
The books are thinly disguised renditions of Kash the Wizard’s exposing of the Russian interference investigation as a hoax, and the Democrats rigging of the 2020 election. All told in fairytale terms which seems appropriate as Patel’s claims of DOJ/FBI bias and the Democrats rigging of the 2020 election are also fairytales.
Patel also wrote an adult book, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth and the Battle for Our Democracy” - a promotional description of the book, “Glimpse into how the government gangsters in the FBI operate, using methods of entrapment and extortion that would make the Mafia proud.”
The book comes complete with appendix listing 60 people Patel considers members of the executive branch deep state including James Comey, Jack Smith, Lisa Monaco and Andrew Weissman. (The introduction to the list says that it is not exhaustive and it doesn’t include Adam Schiff as he was not part of the executive branch, nor does it include “the entire fake news mafia press corp.”)
Director Ka$h
After the inauguration in 2025, Trump nominated Patel to be director of the FBI. Patel was confirmed by the Senate 51-49 after a hearing in which Patel testified, he would not go “backwards.” As director he would not seek retribution for anyone being involved in past investigations of Trump.
As Director of the FBI, Patel aided in the indictment of James Comey. The former U.S. Attorney in Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, did not want to pursue the indictment of Comey as he thought the facts were insufficient to prove the case. Trump fired him and replaced him with Lindsey Halligan, a Trump loyalist with no prosecutive experience.
She obtained a two-count indictment from a grand jury. She had sought a third count but it was not approved by the grand jury. Patel said this, “Comey and his band of miscreants” have criticized Trump’s weaponization of the justice system. “When they’re the ones that authored and penned the biggest US criminal conspiracy in US history, Russia Gate.”
In my experience and generally, cases are investigated and developed by FBI agents. The cases are then presented to Assistant US Attorneys. Prosecutors make the decision as to whether the case should be pursued and presented to a federal grand jury – prosecutorial discretion.
After the evidence is presented, the grand jury deliberates and votes on the indictment that is drafted by the prosecutor containing formal charges. Trump has circumvented this system by instructing DOJ at its highest level as to whom will be investigated and prosecuted not necessarily in that order. U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick, while hearing motions in the Comey case, chastised prosecutors, saying they were playing by a highly suspect set of standards: “Indict first, investigate later.”
Tom Homan (Government photo)
In the Fall of 2024, FBI undercover agents reportedly paid Tom Homan, Trump’s so-called border czar, a $50,000 bribe. This payment and negotiations were presumably recorded as is standard procedure in the Bureau. For undisclosed reasons no prosecution was pursued, and it is unknown whether Homan returned the money. Patel has not answered questions on the matter other than to say there was insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.
Under Patel’s leadership the Bureau has eviscerated its public corruption program. This was until recently one of the FBI’s priorities. Trump’s recent pardon of George Santos sends a clear message that investigation of public corruption is no longer a priority at least if the subject is a Republican. Santos had pleaded guilty and had expressed no sincere remorse. Trump in justifying the Santos pardon wrote on social media: "At least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”
It is difficult to ascertain an exact number, but reportedly about 800 FBI agents have been fired or forced to resign from the FBI. Most of these agents had been involved in the Jan. 6 investigations or the investigation of classified documents that were illegally stored at Mar-a-Lago. The reason most were given for their firing was that they weren’t perceived to be supportive of the “president’s agenda.”
Patel on numerous occasions has made inappropriate and/or inaccurate statements on social media. When Patel, as director of the FBI, makes public statements, they should be fact based and not political. The FBI must have the trust of the American people. If the people think the FBI is dishonest or political, they will not trust it to be fair.
AG Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash (FBI photo)
On November 12th, AG Bondi, Blanche & Patel (The same three who were at Trump’s October 15th press conference, above.) met with Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert in the White House situation room to persuade her to remove her name from a discharge petition pending in the House. (Trump had previously called Boebert and asked her to remove her name from the petition.) The petition requires a vote of the House calling for the release of all the DOJ Jeffrey Epstein files. Prior to becoming FBI director, Patel had, in the interest of justice, vociferously called for the release of the files. He now apparently advocates for the interest of Trump rather than justice.
It seems clear that Kash Patel was never qualified to be director of the FBI. In what little investigative work he has been involved in, he has not followed the facts and the law but rather has tried to meld the facts to reach a preconceived conclusion. It is an insurmountable conflict when as director of the FBI, you take an oath to “support and defend the Constitution,” if your true fealty is to the president. You can’t be both the king’s wizard and a director who swore to follow the rule of law.
If I were an FBI agent today, I would be fired. Being an FBI agent was a childhood aspiration for me, and it turned out to be as rewarding as I had hoped it would be. I was allowed to do my job, to follow the facts and the law without fear or favor. Bottom line, I put bad guys in jail.
Justice was the goal, not the president’s agenda.
