US President-elect Donald Trump has chosen a former aide, Kash Patel, to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an organization the nominee often criticizes.
A former head of the US defense department in the first Trump administration, Patel has been a staunch supporter of the incoming Republican president.
Separately, Trump said Saturday he plans to nominate Chad Chronister, the sheriff of Florida's Hillsborough County, to head the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Patel and Chronister join Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi in filing Trump's enforcement decisions.
His previous proposals have included “dramatic” limits on the FBI's authority.
In his memoir, Government Gangsters, Patel called for an end to what he called “government oppression” within the FBI by firing “top brass”.
The son of Indian immigrants, Patel was a defense attorney and federal prosecutor who caught Trump's eye after becoming senior counsel on the House of Representatives' intelligence committee in 2017.
He was hired by Trump as national security assistant in 2019 and a year later he was appointed as the chief of staff to the head of the Pentagon.
Along with his 2023 memoir, Government Gangsters, he has published two pro-Trump children's books.
One of the titles, The Plot Against the King, follows the villain, Hillary Queenton, trying to overthrow King Donald, aided by a magician called Kash the Distinguished Discoverer.
Another criminal is called Keeper Komey – a thinly veiled reference to former FBI Director James Comey – and his “inspection slugs”, according to the letter's words.
Patel often rails against the so-called “deep state”, which some Americans believe is an unelected bureaucratic machine that secretly controls the country for nefarious purposes.
Patel also excoriated the media, calling them “the most powerful enemy the United States has ever seen”.
He is also on the board of the Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns the incoming president's social network Truth Social.
Patel reportedly had a consulting contract with a company that paid him at least $120,000 a year.
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