Cash Patel has called for sweeping changes at the FBI and has been a fierce and outspoken critic of the bureau’s work during the investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Now a staunch Trump ally has been appointed to lead the federal law enforcement agency he has pushed to reform.

A look at Patel, Trump’s pick to replace Christopher Wray as head of the FBI.

Patel has for years been a loyal ally of Trump, finding common cause over their shared suspicion of government surveillance and the “deep state” — a pejorative phrase Trump uses to refer to government bureaucracy.

He was part of a small group of supporters during Trump’s recent criminal trial in New York, who accompanied him to the courtroom, where he told reporters that Trump was the victim of an “unconstitutional circus.”

Such a close connection would break with the modern-day precedent of FBI directors looking to keep presidents at a distance.

Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump in May 2017, memorably backpedaled when Trump asked him during a private dinner to pledge his loyalty to him.

Wray, who had no personal connection to Trump when he was chosen to replace Comey, broke with Trump on various hot-button issues and served as FBI director during the investigations into Trump that eventually led to his indictment.

Patel has signaled through interviews and public statements his determination to turn the FBI upside down and radically reshape its mission.

He has called for significantly reducing its influence and limiting its power, as well as the prosecution of government officials who disclose information to journalists.

In an interview earlier this year on “The Sean Ryan Show,” Patel pledged to separate the FBI’s intelligence-gathering activities from the rest of its mission, and said he would “close” the bureau’s headquarters building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. . “It was reopened the next day as a ‘deep state’ museum.”

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He added: “I will take the seven thousand employees who work in this building and send them across America to hunt down criminals.”

In a separate interview with conservative strategist Steve Bannon, Patel said he and others “will go out and find the conspirators not just in the government but in the media.”

“We will go after people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig the presidential election,” Patel said, referring to the 2020 presidential election in which Biden, the Democratic challenger, defeated Trump. “We will go after you, whether it’s criminal or civil. We’ll find out. But yes, we’re alerting you all.”

Patel first emerged into Trump’s orbit as an outspoken critic of the FBI’s investigation into possible ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

As a staffer on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which at the time was chaired by Rep. Devin Nunes, a Trump loyalist, Patel helped write a four-page report detailing what she said were mistakes made by the Justice Department in obtaining an arrest warrant. Monitoring a former Trump campaign advisor.

The document, which became known colloquially as the “Nunes Memo,” was released amid strong objections from Wray and Justice Department leaders.

A subsequent inspector general report identified significant problems with FBI surveillance during the Russia investigation, but also concluded that the investigation had been opened for a legitimate purpose and found no evidence that the FBI acted with partisan motives in conducting the investigation.

Patel has played a role in several legal investigations related to Trump.

In 2022, he appeared before a grand jury in Washington investigating Trump’s hoarding of secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida after receiving immunity in exchange for his testimony.

He also testified at a Colorado court hearing regarding Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the lead-up to the violent riot on January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol. Patel, who at the time of the riot was chief of staff to the then serving Secretary of Defense, testified that Trump preemptively authorized the deployment of 10,000 to 20,000 troops days before the attack. But a Colorado court later found that Patel “was not a reliable witness” in the matter.

Shortly after Trump left office, Patel launched Fight with Kash, an organization that funds defamation lawsuits and sells a wide range of merchandise, including branded socks and other apparel bearing the “K$H” logo.

Patel also turned to publishing. He wrote a book called Gangs of Government, which is part memoir and part anti-so-called deep state. Patel collaborated with Bannon to release the film version. Patel has also written children’s books celebrating Trump — “The Plot Against the King” features a thinly veiled Hillary Clinton as the villain who pursues “King Donald” while Cash plays the wizard who foils her plans.

Patel was one of the pioneers of a variety of products marketed to Trump supporters. One supplement he’s promoting claims to be a “detoxification system” for the coronavirus vaccine.

Records show that Patel received hundreds of thousands of dollars annually from consulting for Trump-linked entities, including a political action committee and the company that owns Truth Social.

Patel helped produce “And Justice For All,” a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner sung by a group of men imprisoned for their roles in the Capitol riot.

Patel’s nomination has received support from prominent Trump supporters, including people who support the president-elect’s agenda at the FBI and Department of Justice and the idea of ​​using his electoral victory to pursue retaliation against his perceived opponents.

He has been a regular guest on right-wing podcasts and live online shows hosted by Bannon, Tim Paul, Bennie Johnson and others.

Even as Trump is said to be considering more traditional picks for the office whose confirmation prospects are seen as more certain, some conservative supporters of the president-elect have boosted Patel’s candidacy and disparaged other potential picks, including Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and businessman. former. Former Republican Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

A Trump aide recently said on social media that Rogers did not get the job.