Trump taps Kash Patel for FBI director, a loyalist who would aid effort to upend law enforcement

Former Chief of Staff to the United States Secretary of Defense Kash Patel speaks during a Turning Point Action 'United for Change' campaign rally for former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 24, 2024. (AFP)
Former Chief of Staff to the United States Secretary of Defense Kash Patel speaks during a Turning Point Action 'United for Change' campaign rally for former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 24, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 01 December 2024
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Trump taps Kash Patel for FBI director, a loyalist who would aid effort to upend law enforcement

Trump taps Kash Patel for FBI director, a loyalist who would aid effort to upend law enforcement
  • Patel, the child of Indian immigrants and a former public defender, spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration’s attention as a staffer for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Kash Patel to serve as FBI director, turning to a fierce ally to upend America’s premier law enforcement agency and rid the government of perceived “conspirators.” It’s the latest bombshell Trump has thrown at the Washington establishment and a test for how far Senate Republicans will go in confirming his nominees.
“I am proud to announce that Kashyap ‘Kash’ Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Trump posted Saturday night on Truth Social. “Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.”
The selection is in keeping with Trump’s view that the government’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies require a radical transformation and his stated desire for retribution against supposed adversaries. It shows how Trump, still fuming over years of federal investigations that shadowed his first administration and later led to his indictment, is moving to place atop the FBI and Justice Department close allies he believes will protect rather than scrutinize him.
Patel “played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution,” Trump wrote Saturday night.
It remains unclear whether Patel could be confirmed, even by a Republican-led Senate, though Trump has also raised the prospect of using recess appointments to push his selections through.
Patel would replace Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Trump in 2017 but quickly fell out of favor with the president and his allies. Though the position carries a 10-year term, Wray’s removal was not unexpected given Trump’s long-running public criticism of him and the FBI, including after a search of his Florida’s property for classified documents and two investigations that resulted in his indictment.
Patel’s past proposals, if carried out, would lead to convulsive change for an agency tasked not only with investigating violations of federal law but also protecting the country from terrorist attacks, foreign espionage and other threats.
He’s called for dramatically reducing the FBI’s footprint, a perspective that dramatically sets him apart from earlier directors who have sought additional resources for the bureau, and has suggested closing down the bureau’s headquarters in Washington and “reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state” — Trump’s pejorative catch-all for the federal bureaucracy.
And though the Justice Department in 2021 halted the practice of secretly seizing reporters’ phone records during leak investigation, Patel has said he intends to aggressively hunt down government officials who leak information to reporters and change the law to make it easier to sue journalists.
During an interview with Steve Bannon last December, Patel said he and others “will go out and find the conspirators not just in government but in the media.”
“We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” Patel said, referring to the 2020 presidential election in which Biden, the Democratic challenger, defeated Trump. “We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice.”
Trump also announced Saturday that he would nominate Sheriff Chad Chronister, the top law enforcement officer in Hillsborough County, Florida, to serve as the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Chronister is another Florida Republican named to Trump’s administration. He has worked for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office since 1992 and became the top law enforcement officer in Hillsborough County 2017. He also worked closely with Trump’s choice for attorney general, Pam Bondi.
Patel, the child of Indian immigrants and a former public defender, spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration’s attention as a staffer for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The panel’s then-chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was a strong Trump ally who tasked Patel with running the committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Patel ultimately helped author what became known as the “Nunes Memo,” a four-page report that detailed how it said the Justice Department had erred in obtaining a warrant to surveil a former Trump campaign volunteer. The memo’s release faced vehement opposition from Wray and the Justice Department, who warned that it would be reckless to disclose sensitive information.
A subsequent inspector general report identified significant problems with FBI surveillance during the Russia investigation, but also found no evidence that the FBI had acted with partisan motives in conducting the probe and said there had been a legitimate basis to open the inquiry.
The Russia investigation fueled Patel’s suspicions of the FBI, the intelligence community and also the media, which he has called “the most powerful enemy the United States has ever seen.” Seizing on compliance errors in the FBI’s use of a spy program that officials say is vital for national security, Patel has accused the FBI of having “weaponized” its surveillance powers against innocent Americans.
Patel parlayed that work into influential administration roles on the National Security Council and later as chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.
He continued as a loyal Trump lieutenant even after he left office, accompanying the president-elect into court during his criminal trial in New York and asserting to reporters that Trump was the victim of a “constitutional circus.”
In addition to his 2023 memoir, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” Patel has published two children’s books that lionize Trump. “The Plot Against the King” features a thinly veiled Hillary Clinton as the villain going after “King Donald,” while Kash, a wizard called the Distinguished Discoverer, exposes a nefarious plot.

 


Unions sue Trump, fearing mass firings of federal employees

Unions sue Trump, fearing mass firings of federal employees
Updated 13 February 2025
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Unions sue Trump, fearing mass firings of federal employees

Unions sue Trump, fearing mass firings of federal employees
Reuters

Five unions sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, seeking to block what they called the possible mass firing of hundreds of thousands of federal employees who resist pressure to accept buyouts.
In a complaint filed in Washington, D.C. federal court, the unions accused the White House and others in the Executive Branch of undermining Congress’ role in creating and funding a federal workforce, violating separation of powers principles.
The plaintiffs include the United Auto Workers, the National Treasury Employees Union, the National Federation of Federal Employees, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.
Ten defendants were named, including Trump, the heads of agencies, the Department of Defense, Internal Revenue Service and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management.
Last week, some unions sued the Trump administration to block the buyouts. On Monday, US District Judge George O’Toole in Boston kept in place a block of the buyout plan for federal employees, as he considers whether to impose it for a longer period of time.
The decision prevents Trump’s administration from implementing the buyout plan for now, giving a temporary victory to labor unions that have sued to stop it entirely.
On Tuesday, meanwhile, Trump ordered US agencies to work closely with billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to identify federal employees who could be laid off.

Russia, Ukraine trade blame for IAEA disruptions at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

Russia, Ukraine trade blame for IAEA disruptions at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Updated 13 February 2025
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Russia, Ukraine trade blame for IAEA disruptions at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

Russia, Ukraine trade blame for IAEA disruptions at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

KYIV: Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday accused each other of blocking the rotation of staff from the International Atomic Energy Agency at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
Moscow’s troops seized the facility — Europe’s largest nuclear power station — in the first days of its invasion of Ukraine, and both sides have repeatedly accused the other of risking a potentially devastating nuclear disaster by attacking the site.
Staff from the UN nuclear watchdog have been based there since September 2022 to monitor nuclear safety.
Fighting meant the IAEA staff could not be swapped out as part of a planned rotation on Wednesday — the second such delay in a week — both Kyiv and Moscow said, trading blame for the incident.
Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy said in a statement: “Russia has once again deliberately disrupted the rotation of IAEA experts at the Zaporizhzhia plant.”
Inspectors spend around five weeks at the plant in stints before being swapped out in a complex procedure that involves traveling across the front line under supervision from the Russian and Ukrainian militaries.
Tykhy accused Russia’s army of opening fire near where the planned rotation was taking place, saying Moscow’s goal was to force the IAEA team to travel through Russian-controlled territory and “violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Ukrainian army blocked the IAEA team from traveling to an agreed meeting point and were attacking the area with drones — at which point the Russian military withdrew its support team and returned to the station.
“On their return, the convoy carrying Russian military personnel and IAEA experts... came under attack by drone and mortar strikes,” Zakharova said in a statement.
The IAEA staff members were supposed to leave the station on February 5 in a rotation that was also delayed.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi was in both Ukraine and Russia last week, where he discussed the issue of rotations with officials from both countries.
In a statement, Grossi expressed his “deep regret” over the cancelation of the “carefully prepared and agreed rotation” due to excessive danger, calling the situation “completely unacceptable.”
“As a result of these extremely concerning events, I am in active consultation with both sides to guarantee the safety of our teams,” he said.


Suspect charged in killing of French schoolgirl, 11

Suspect charged in killing of French schoolgirl, 11
Updated 13 February 2025
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Suspect charged in killing of French schoolgirl, 11

Suspect charged in killing of French schoolgirl, 11
  • The body of the girl, named as Louise, was found on Saturday close to her school
  • French police on Monday arrested a man aged 23 and his DNA was found on Louise’s hands, according to prosecutors

EVRY, France: The prime suspect in the murder of an 11-year-old French schoolgirl, who was found in the woods with multiple stab wounds, was charged after confessing to the crime, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
In a killing that shocked France, the body of the girl, named as Louise, was found on Saturday close to her school. She had been missing since leaving school in the suburban town of Epinay-sur-Orge about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Paris on Friday afternoon.
French police on Monday arrested a man aged 23 and his DNA was found on Louise’s hands, according to prosecutors.
“The main suspect admitted to the charges against him while in custody,” public prosecutor Gregoire Dulin said in a statement. Later Wednesday, the prosecutors’ office said he had been charged and that they would ask a judge to approve keeping him in detention.
The man’s parents and girlfriend, 23, had also been detained on suspicion of failing to report a crime, prosecutors said.
On Saturday, prosecutor Dulin had said that “there is no evidence to suggest that sexual violence was committed.”
French media described the suspect as a “video game addict,” and Dulin said on Wednesday that he may have been looking for “somebody to rob” in an attempt “to calm down” after an altercation during an online video game.
But he “panicked” when Louise began to scream, Dulin added.
Le Parisien daily had earlier pointed to “the possibility of a sadistic act.” Although he was not known to suffer from psychiatric disorders, the suspect could be “very violent” and was known to have repeatedly beaten his younger sister, the newspaper added.
The killing comes at a time when law and order, and in particular crime against children, are major issues in French politics and society. Speaking on Wednesday, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau expressed “deepest sympathy” to Louise’s family.
The hard-line minister has vowed to tighten law and order in France.
“The whole establishment is in shock,” Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Tuesday.
Flowers and candles have been placed in front of the Andre Maurois school that Louise attended, as well as at the foot of a tree where the body was found.
A woman, who provided only her first name, Josephine, said she felt “upset all weekend.”
“I wasn’t well, it made me think of my granddaughter and my grandson,” she said in the town where the body was found on Tuesday. “We’re not at peace anywhere.”
“As soon as I was told about it, I said it’s the little girl with long hair,” she added.
A psychological support unit has been set up in Epinay-sur-Orge.


Turkiye’s president arrives in Pakistan’s capital on a 2-day visit to boost trade, economic ties

Turkiye’s president arrives in Pakistan’s capital on a 2-day visit to boost trade, economic ties
Updated 12 February 2025
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Turkiye’s president arrives in Pakistan’s capital on a 2-day visit to boost trade, economic ties

Turkiye’s president arrives in Pakistan’s capital on a 2-day visit to boost trade, economic ties
  • According to the ministry statement, HLSCC will provide “strategic direction to further strengthening the bilateral relations between the two countries”

ISLAMABAD: Turkiye’s president, accompanied by a high-level delegation, arrived in Pakistan’s capital late Wednesday night on a two-day visit to discuss how to boost trade and economic ties between the nations, officials said.
When his plane landed at an airport near Islamabad, Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan was received by his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and other senior government officials.
Erdogan is visiting Pakistan at the invitation of Sharif, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It said the Turkish president will jointly chair “the 7th Session of the Pakistan-Turkiye High Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC)” and the sides are expected to sign a number of agreements.
Erdogan will have bilateral meetings with Zardari and Sharif on Thursday.
According to the ministry statement, HLSCC will provide “strategic direction to further strengthening the bilateral relations between the two countries.”
The statement said “Pakistan and Turkiye are bound by historic fraternal ties” and the visit by Erdogan “would serve to further deepen the brotherly relations and enhance multifaceted cooperation between the two countries”.
Pakistan, which has witnessed a surge in militant violence in recent months, has deployed additional police officers and paramilitary forces to ensure the security of the Turkish leader and his delegation.
The visit comes hours after the US Embassy issued a travel advisory, citing a threat by Pakistani Taliban against the Faisal mosque in Islamabad and asked its citizens to avoid visits to the mosque and nearby areas until further notice.


US defense chief suggests Ukraine should abandon hope of winning all territory back from Russia

US defense chief suggests Ukraine should abandon hope of winning all territory back from Russia
Updated 12 February 2025
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US defense chief suggests Ukraine should abandon hope of winning all territory back from Russia

US defense chief suggests Ukraine should abandon hope of winning all territory back from Russia
  • The statements by Trump and Hegseth offered the clearest look yet at how the new administration might try to end Europe’s largest land war in generations

BRUSSELS: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and suggested Kyiv should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back from Russia and instead prepare for a negotiated peace settlement to be backed up by international troops.
Hours later, President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the Ukraine war. In a social media post that upended three years of US policy toward Ukraine, the Republican disclosed a call between the two leaders and said they would “work together, very closely.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said Zelensky and Trump also had a phone conversation.
Taken together, the statements by Trump and Hegseth offered the clearest look yet at how the new administration might try to end Europe’s largest land war in generations.
Hegseth’s warning to Ukraine that it should abandon its NATO bid and its push to reclaim all Russian-occupied territory signaled starkly to Kyiv that the administration’s view of a potential settlement is remarkably close to Moscow’s vision. Putin has declared that any peace deal must ensure that Ukraine gives up its NATO ambitions and withdraws its troops from the four regions that Russia annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured.
In sweeping remarks to allies eager to hear how much continued support Washington intends to provide to the Ukrainian government, Hegseth indicated that Trump is determined to get Europe to assume most of the financial and military responsibilities for the defense of Ukraine, including a possible peacekeeping force that would not include US troops.
Making the first trip to NATO by a member of the new Trump administration, the defense secretary also said the force should not have Article 5 protections, which could require the US or the 31 other nations of the NATO alliance to come to the aid of those forces if they are attacked by Russian forces.
The secretary’s comments were sure to dim Ukraine’s hopes of making itself whole again and to complicate talks later this week between Zelensky and US Vice President JD Vance and other senior American officials at a major security security conference in Munich.
“The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth said, as Kyiv’s backers gathered at NATO headquarters for a meeting to drum up more arms and ammunition for the war, which will soon enter its fourth year.
All 32 allies must agree for a country to join NATO, meaning that every member has a veto.
“Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops,” Hegseth said. “To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine.”
Other Western allies said the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO needs to stay on the table.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said NATO “is still the main guarantee of security for European countries.”
Asked about Trump’s phone call with Putin, Barrot said that abandoning Ukraine would “entrench the law of the strongest. It would be an invitation to all the world’s tyrants and despots to invade their neighbors with complete impunity.”
Hegseth insisted that NATO should play no role in any future military mission to police the peace in Ukraine and that any peacekeeping troops should not be covered by the part of NATO’s founding treaty that obliges all allies to come to the aid of any member under attack.
Article 5 has been activated only once, when European allies and Canada used it to help the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.
Hegseth also said Europe “must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine.” Ukraine currently relies equally on Europe and the US for about 30 percent each of its defense needs. The rest is produced by Ukraine itself.
Speaking with the allies of Ukraine known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Hegseth also insisted that Ukraine’s Western backers must abandon the “illusionary goal” of returning the country to its pre-2014 borders, before Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and seized parts of eastern Ukraine.
“Members of this contact group must meet the moment,” Hegseth said to the approximately 50 member countries that have provided support to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
In his social media post, Trump said he and Putin “talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together. But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place” in the war.
Trump said the two leaders “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.”
Zelensky said he had a “meaningful conversation” with Trump about “opportunities to achieve peace.” He said Trump shared details of his conversation with Putin.
“No one wants peace more than Ukraine,” Zelensky posted on X. “Together with the US, we are charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace. As President Trump said, let’s get it done. We agreed to maintain further contact and plan upcoming meetings.”
Talking to reporters after the NATO meeting, UK Defense Secretary John Healey said Hegseth’s words would not go unheeded.
“We heard his call for European nations to step up. We are, and we will,” Healey said.
Healey underlined that “Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO. That is a process that will take some time.”
He also announced that Britain would provide Ukraine with a fresh $187 million “firepower package,” including drones, tanks and air-defense systems.
Over nearly three years, those 50 countries have collectively provided Ukraine with more than $126 billion in weapons and military assistance, including more than $66.5 billion from the US, which has served as the chair of the group since its creation.
Hegseth’s trip comes less than two weeks before the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Most US allies fear that Putin won’t stop at Ukraine’s borders if he wins.
Trump has promised to end the war quickly. He’s complained that it’s costing American taxpayers too much money and suggested that Ukraine should pay for US support with access to its rare earth minerals, energy and other resources.
On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was in Kyiv to discuss a potential economic cooperation agreement with Ukraine that Trump is pushing as part of the foundation for a larger peace deal.