Who is Kash Patel, who has emerged as one of the close confidantes of US President Donald Trump?
Former defence department chief of staff and ex-federal prosecutor, Kash Patel hogged the headline after the US Senate confirmed him 51-49 as the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
From Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel To Kash Patel
Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel also served as a National Security Council official, and senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence, during the first presidency of Donald Trump.
Born in New York on February 25, 1980, Kash Patel has Indian connections.
His parents moved to Canada in the early 1970s from Uganda after they suffered ethnic repression during the reign of Idi Amin.
They relocated to the US and his father got the job of a financial officer at an aviation firm.
Kash Patel Raised As A Hindu
Kash Patel, a Gujarati by origin, was raised in the Hindu faith. He graduated from Garden City High School on Long Island.
He went to the University of Richmond and completed his B.A. in 2002, before finishing his JD at Pace University School of Law, New York in 2005.
He also obtained a certificate in international law from University College London in England in 2004.
Kash Patel moved to Florida and became a member of the Florida Bar in April 2006.
Kash Patel Defends Drug-Trafficking Accused
He launched his career as a public defender, in the Miami-Dade County public defender’s office.
Later he also became a federal public defender and represented clients charged with felonies.
His clients included those charged with international drug trafficking, murder, firearms violations, and bulk cash smuggling.
Kash Patel Joins House Intelligence Committee
Kash Patel joined senior committee aide to House Intelligence Committee chairperson Devin Nunes as his assistant.
With this position, he played a prominent role in the Republican opposition to the investigations into Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Donald Trump hired Kash Patel Patel as a staffer for the National Security Council in 2019 and worked in the International Organizations and Alliances directorate.
He became senior director of the Counterterrorism Directorate in July 2019.
On Secret Mission
If media reports are to be believed, Kash Patel went to Damascus on a secret mission in early 2020 to negotiate the release of Majd Kamalmaz and journalist Austin Tice, both of whom were being held by the Syrian government.
After winning the presidential elections last year, Trump proposed Patel as a potential leader for either the FBI or CIA in early 2021 following the 2020 United States presidential election.
