Indian-American Kashyap “Kash” Patel has been appointed as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) by US President-elect Donald Trump. A former Republican House staff member and vocal critic of the FBI, Patel garnered over three hundred thousand followers shortly after joining a social media platform. Born in New York in 1980 to Gujarati parents who immigrated from East Africa, Patel pursued his undergraduate education at the University of Richmond before obtaining his law degree and a certificate in International Law from University College London in the United Kingdom. Following the completion of his legal education, the 44-year-old served as a public defender in Florida, representing clients in both state and federal courts. He subsequently joined the Department of Justice as a prosecutor, where he managed significant international terrorism cases in East Africa and the United States. Throughout the campaign for the presidency, he actively supported Donald Trump against Democrat Kamala Harris and served as an advisor to both the director of national intelligence and the defense secretary during Trump’s initial term.
