‘Someone who sees enemies everywhere’: How Kash Patel’s years as a government lawyer fueled his disdain for Washington elites

Years before he was Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel was a midlevel Justice Department lawyer who once drew the ire of a Texas judge who described Patel as being precisely the kind of federal bureaucrat he has vowed to weed out in his crusade against the so-called deep state.

Years before he was Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel was a midlevel Justice Department lawyer who once drew the ire of a Texas judge who described Patel as being precisely the kind of federal bureaucrat he has vowed to weed out in his crusade against the so-called deep state. In January 2016, Patel had just landed from a trip to Tajikistan as part of his job with the DOJ’s National Security Division when he turned up at a Texas courthouse to join the government trial team in a federal counterterrorism case. Though it had been proceeding for weeks, it was Patel’s first time showing up in person as part of the prosecution. The judge was immediately suspicious of him. “Who is this Patel guy?” Judge Lynn Hughes asked the government’s lawyers, criticizing one of them for letting Patel use his account to enter his notice of appearance in the case. Later in his chambers, the judge ripped into Patel for not wearing a suit and tie, telling him he didn’t add a “bit of value” to the government’s team and accused Patel of being a “spy” for his bosses in DC. “You’re just one more nonessential employee from Washington,” said Hughes, who later doubled down by issuing an “order on ineptitude” on Patel and his Justice Department colleagues and putting the episode in the court record.