Who is Kashyap “Kash” Patel, Donald Trump’s likely candidate for CIA chief?

Here are 10 points about Kashyap Patel:

1. Kashyap “Kash” Patel is of Gujarati descent and said his parents grew up in East Africa. According to The Atlantic, his father fled Idi Amin-ruled Uganda in the 1970s and moved to the United States.
2. Mr. Patel was born in 1980 and grew up in Garden City, New York. Raised as a Hindu, he quoted Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel in his senior yearbook: “Racism is the greatest threat to man – the maximum of hate for a minimal reason.”
3. According to his Defense Department profile, Mr. Patel completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond before returning to New York to obtain his law degree, along with a certificate in international law, from the University College London Law School in the United Kingdom.
4. The 44-year-old was the former chief of staff to incumbent Defense Secretary Christopher Miller. Previously, as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council, he fulfilled several of then-President Donald Trump’s top priorities, including eliminating ISIS and al-Qaeda leaders such as al-Baghdadi and Qasem al-Rimi and repatriating many American hostages.
5. He also served as National Security Advisor and Senior Counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he led the investigation into Russia’s active measures campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election.
6. After beginning his career as a public defender, he tried many complex cases in state and federal courts, including those involving murder, drug trafficking and financial crimes.
7. The Atlantic report describes Mr. Patel as the man “who will do anything for Trump,” who is now the president-elect after winning a remarkable victory in the just-concluded election.
8. According to the report, Mr. Patel joined the then-Trump administration in 2019 as a 40-year-old lawyer and quickly rose through the ranks.
9. According to the report, Trump also planned to name Patel deputy director of the CIA in the final weeks of his term, but faced resistance.
10. At a Young Republicans gala last year, Trump had a message for Mr. Patel: “Get ready, Kash. Get ready.”