How bitter Trump ally Kash Patel could help reshape the FBI or Justice Department

Last year, as Donald Trump’s re-election bid was underway, he declared that a new book by his fiercely loyal adviser Kash Patel would serve as a “blueprint” for his next administration.

“This is the roadmap to end the rule of the Deep State,” Trump said of the book on his social media platform Truth.

Titled “Government Gangsters,” it calls for a “comprehensive purge” of the Justice Department and an elimination of “government tyranny” within the FBI by firing “the top brass” and prosecuting “to the fullest extent of the law” anyone who “ have in any way abused their authority for political purposes.”

“[T]“The FBI is so thoroughly compromised that it will remain a threat to the people unless drastic action is taken,” Patel claims in his book. “Democrats should be very afraid,” Patel wrote, as Trump and his allies fight “the Deep State” — what conspiracy theorists claim is a cadre of career employees within the government working together to secretly manipulate policy and elect leaders undermine.

After Trump’s historic re-election last week, media speculation suggests that Patel, a former Defense Department official, could be considered to become Trump’s attorney general or CIA director – or that he could even replace current FBI Director Christopher Wray, the Trump has reportedly vowed to fire.

“President Trump called [my book] “We have developed the roadmap for 2024 and now we are putting it into action,” Patel said in a podcast on Thursday, without specifying whether he himself might take on a senior role in the new government.

A spokesman for Trump’s transition team did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

Patel’s closeness to Trump and Trump’s public acceptance of Patel’s book underscore that the Justice Department and the FBI could face profound upheaval.

Here’s what Patel said about what new leadership could do.

Firing and possible indictment of FBI and DOJ officials

Patel, who once served as a prosecutor in the Justice Department’s national security division, has long accused FBI and Justice Department leaders of using their authority to boost Democrats and undermine Republicans – particularly Trump.

There is a “two-tier justice system,” Patel said again and again.

He often highlights his later work as a congressional investigator, when he helped lead the House Republicans’ investigation into “Russiagate” – what he describes as the FBI’s misconduct in its investigation into alleged ties between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia revealed in 2016.

That work led to Patel joining the Trump administration in 2019, and in the final year of Trump’s presidency, Patel was named acting deputy director of national intelligence — the second-in-command of the entire U.S. intelligence community — and then he became acting chief U.S. Secretary of Defense, a position for which critics claimed he was unqualified.

A special counsel investigation launched by the Justice Department during Trump’s first term concluded that “senior FBI personnel” and federal prosecutors working on the Russia investigation demonstrated “a serious lack of analytical rigor” toward politically tinged information had laid and failed to “adequately check”. “or” question this information before launching a full-scale investigation into Trump and his associates, which includes intercepting communications from a former Trump adviser.

In its own report on the matter, the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General said that while it found “fundamental errors” and significant “lapses” in the FBI investigation, it found no evidence that “political bias or improper motivation” occurred. influenced the investigation, including the decision to intercept these communications.

Yet Patel said in his book: “All those who tampered with evidence.” [or] “hiding exculpatory information” should face charges.

He also claimed that the Justice Department “abused prosecutorial discretion” by refusing to charge Hillary Clinton for allegedly compromising confidential information through her use of a private email server and by refusing to prosecute President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, for what Patel describes as influence peddling – while impeaching Trump ally Steve Bannon over his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol and also blamed so many of the Trump supporters who were at the Capitol that day.

“These specific prosecutors and department[s] within the department who selectively apply the law should be eliminated and brought into compliance,” Patel wrote in his book.

In a campaign video released last year, Trump promised that if re-elected, he would “immediately re-issue a 2020 executive order” giving him the authority to “remove rogue bureaucrats.”

“And I will use that power very aggressively,” he said.

Trump also said he would “completely reform” the court system that approved the FBI’s requests to intercept his former adviser’s communications in 2016 and 2017.

Revoke “massive” amounts of security clearances

In another podcast two months ago, Patel said that anyone involved in Russiagate should have their security clearance revoked.

According to Patel, there is a “vast” list of such government officials, from the FBI and the Justice Department to the CIA and the US military.

“They all still have their permits,” including those who left the government to work in the private sector, so “everyone” should lose their permits, Patel said.

Patel said he personally “recommended” to Trump that the new administration also revoke all security clearances still held by 51 former intelligence officials, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan. In October 2020, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, he signed a letter denying the public release of emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop as part of a “Russian information operation.”

“We would like to emphasize that we do not know whether the emails are genuine or not and that we have no evidence of Russian involvement,” they wrote. “[But if] We are right, Russia is trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we firmly believe Americans need to be aware of that.”

Trump and his allies have accused the 51 former secret service employees of trying to influence the 2020 election themselves. And that’s why Patel wants Trump to revoke their permits.

“Because it’s justified,” Patel said. “It’s not an act of revenge. They had the opportunity to withdraw, and all 51 of them doubled and tripled their bets. So you withdraw them. I think he will.”

“Closure” of FBI headquarters

In Thursday’s podcast about the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. – where more than 7,000 agents, analysts, administrative staff and other employees work – Patel said the new Trump administration should “shut this building down.”

“The next day, open it as a deep state museum,” he added.

Patel said the FBI should then leave about 50 of its employees somewhere in Washington to help keep the agency running, and send thousands of other employees into the field to join the already 16,000 employees.

Meanwhile, Patel said in his book that the Justice Department should “drastically reduce” the number of cases it prosecutes in Washington because Washington is “perhaps the most liberal jurisdiction in America.”

Release still classified documents

On Thursday’s podcast, Patel described Trump’s election victory as a “mandate for the truth” about “the corruption” within government.

That’s why, he said, the new Trump administration should “extract any remaining documents that have been blocked by the Biden administration and deep state efforts in other administrations.”

Patel has long called for the disclosure of as yet unpublished documents from the FBI’s investigation into Trump and alleged ties to Russia.

On January 19, 2021, Trump’s last full day in office, the outgoing president announced that he had declassified a folder containing many of these documents. But for reasons that remain unclear, none of the documents were ever officially released.

Now, as president, Trump can “disclose the documents that these people have been writing for decades and allow this to happen.” [their] corrupt activities,” Patel said on Thursday.

“He’ll come in there and maybe give them the Epstein list and maybe the P. Diddy list,” Patel added, referring to documents that list late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy.” Combs, who denies this in the recent sexual abuse cases filed against him and maintains his innocence of the criminal charges against him.

In the campaign video released last year, Trump promised to create a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” that would “declassify and publish all documents relating to espionage, censorship and corruption in the Deep State.”

It’s all part of “my plan to dismantle the deep state and take back our democracy from the corruption in Washington once and for all,” he said.