Still serving · 2025–
Kash Patel
Director of the FBI
Public defender, then national-security prosecutor, then the Pentagon’s chief of staff. Ninth director of the FBI. Son of Indian immigrants from Garden City.
- On the file
- 5
- Of 13
- 7
- The building
- In
Career
Awards, firsts, the work
Public defender, then the jury box
University of Richmond, criminal justice and history. A law degree in New York, a certificate from University College London. He started in 2005 as a Florida public defender and tried scores of jury trials — murder, narco-trafficking, financial crime — on both sides of the v.
SourceFBINational-security prosecutor, JSOC liaison
Joined Main Justice under Obama as a national-security prosecutor. DOJ liaison to Joint Special Operations Command, targeting with tier-one units. The FBI bio credits prosecutions of al-Qaeda and ISIS actors across theaters.
SourceFBICounterterrorism on the NSC — Baghdadi, the hostages
Deputy assistant to the president, senior director for counterterrorism. The Pentagon bio says he oversaw the hunt that killed ISIS leader al-Baghdadi and al-Qaeda’s Qasem al-Rimi, and the repatriation of American hostages. Then deputy director of National Intelligence, then the building.
SourceDepartment of DefenseChief of staff, Department of Defense
November 2020: chief of staff to the secretary of defense. Three million people, a $740 billion budget, $2 trillion in assets. A short tour at the end of the first term that is why the second term put him at the Bureau.
SourceFBINinth Director of the FBI
Sworn February 20, 2025. The Kash Foundation, his 501(c)(3), raises defense-and-education money with a lean toward active-duty, veterans, and cops. The Bureau job is the one that put the Crossfire Hurricane critic inside the building he investigated from the House.
SourceFBI