- Kashyap ‘Kash’ Patel is of Gujarati descent and has said that his parents grew up in East Africa. According to The Atlantic, his father fled Uganda ruled by Idi Amin in the 1970s and moved to the United States.
- Mr. Patel was born and raised in Garden City, New York in 1980. He was raised in a Hindu family, his senior yearbook contained a quote from Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel: “Racism is the gravest danger to man – maximum hatred for a minimum cause.”
- According to his Defense Department profile, Mr. Patel completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond before returning to New York to pursue a law degree, as well as a Certificate in International Law from the University College London Faculty of Law in the UK.
- The 44-year-old served as former chief of staff to Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller. Previously, as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council, he carried out many of then-President Donald Trump’s top priorities, including targeting ISIS and al-Qaeda leadership such as al-Baghdadi and Qasim al-Rami. Finishing included. , and the return of several American hostages.
- He also served as National Security Advisor and senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he led the investigation into the Russian active measures campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election.
- Having begun his career as a public defender, he has tried a number of complex cases in state and federal courts, including murder, narco-trafficking and financial crimes.
- The Atlantic report described Mr Patel as someone who would “do anything for Trump”, who is now president-elect after winning a remarkable victory in the recently concluded elections.
- Mr Patel joined the then-Trump administration as a 40-year-old lawyer in 2019 and quickly rose up the ranks, the report said.
- The report also said Trump had planned to nominate Patel to be deputy director of the CIA in the final weeks of his administration, but he faced opposition.
- At a Young Republicans event last year, Trump had a message for Mr Patel: “Get ready, Ish. Get ready”.
