'There is going to be hell to pay' as the FBI braces for Kash Patel's retribution: reports

22 February

On Thursday, February 20 — before the U.S. Senate voted on President Donald Trump's nomination of Kash Patel for FBI director — a group of Democratic senators gathered outside the FBI building in Washington, DC to express their vehement opposition to the far-right Trump loyalist and MAGA conspiracy theorist.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) made it clear that he considers Patel flat-out dangerous, warning, "My prediction is if you vote for Kash Patel, more than any other confirmation vote you make, you will come to regret this one to your grave."

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) was equally critical of Trump, saying, "This is someone we cannot trust. This is someone who lacks the character to do this job, someone who lacks the integrity to do this job…. The only qualification Kash Patel has to be FBI director is that when everyone else in the first Trump Administration said, 'No, I won't do that, that crosses moral, ethical and legal lines,' Kash Patel said, 'Sign me up.'"

Regardless, Patel was confirmed as FBI director, 51-49, along partisan lines. All Senate Democrats voted "no," and only two Republicans voted against Patel: Sen. Susan Collins (D-Maine) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Democrats — as well as Never Trump conservatives — fear that Patel, based on past statements, will use the FBI as a tool of revenge against Trump's political foes. That possibility is addressed in articles by New York Magazine's Andrew Rice and Rolling Stone's Radley Balko.

Rice, in an article published on February 22, explains, "Patel will now take control of an institution with the capacity to surveil, interrogate, and arrest. He will sit in a building named for (J. Edgar) Hoover, the bureau's complicated patriarch, who put its powers to political, and sometimes illegal, uses for presidents from Coolidge to Nixon. Since the revelation of Hoover's abuses in the 1970s, each subsequent director kept a deliberate distance from the presidents he served. But the next FBI director and Trump could not be more closely aligned in their plans, which Patel was more than happy to spell out back when he was just talking to his friends. 'Government Gangsters' includes a now-notorious appendix that names 60 individuals as agents of the 'deep state.'"

Robert O'Brien, who served as national security adviser in the first Trump Administration, told Rice, "I think Kash is going to be much more of a traditionalist as FBI director than you'd expect."

But a former FBI official, interviewed on condition of anonymity, fears that Patel won't be a traditionalist —and may abuse his position.

That source told New York Magazine, "I think he's dangerous in that role. It's a uniquely powerful role in our constellation of government. The culture of the bureau is very director-driven and paramilitary. You have access to all kinds of secret information. If you have someone who is willing to leak, willing to say things with a gloss that isn’t true, to open investigations because directed, to close investigations when hinted at or directed to, that is the road to authoritarianism."

Far-right MAGA attorney and Trump loyalist Mike Davis is delighted that Patel was confirmed, telling New York Magazine, "The FBI ran a political operation on the former president, and unfortunately for the FBI, he is now the president again. There is going to be hell to pay, and there should be."

Many Democrats and Never Trump conservatives fear that Patel will purge the FBI of agents who aren't obedient Trump loyalists. But journalist Radley Balko, in an in-depth article for Rolling Stone, argues that such purges may not be necessary — and that Trump may have a lot of sympathizers at the agency.

"The grim reality is that Patel won't need to remake the FBI from scratch," Balko reports. "He'll just need to marginally redirect the agency's focus from unconstitutionally harassing groups the right has traditionally loathed, to unconstitutionally harassing groups that Trump loathes personally."

Balko warns that Patel "isn't merely unqualified for this position — his record ought to be disqualifying."

"He has associated with far-right extremists, and expressed his support for QAnon cranks," Balko observes. "He's sold Trump-themed merchandise, and pushed a pill he claims counteracts the effects of the COVID vaccine. During the 2024 campaign, Patel pledged that the second Trump Administration would target the president's enemies, critics, and journalists who report unflattering stories about the Administration…. The fear from progressives and Democrats is that Patel will radicalize the agency, purge it of its dedicated public servants, and replace them with MAGA lackeys who will weaponize their powers to target Trump's enemies. But while former FBI officials and civil libertarians who study the agency share that fear, they say it glosses over an important reality: Many at the agency are already on board with Trump."

Former FBI agent Mike German fears that Patel will be able to carry out his far-right agenda without having to fire a lot of employees.

German told Rolling Stone, "The uncomfortable truth here is that Patel wouldn't have to purge that many people…. I think an unnervingly large percentage of the agency will be sympathetic to what Patel wants to do. And I think they'd be pretty open about that."

Read Andrew Rice's full article for New York Magazine at this link (subscription required) and Radley Balko's reporting for Rolling Stone here (subscription required).

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