Head of the FBI under Donald Trump. Before joining the government, Patel told Congress in 2023 to "put on your big-boy pants" and release Jeffrey Epstein's client list, promoting the narrative that the state was suppressing explosive information about the convicted paedophile's associates.
Patel co-authored a House Intelligence Committee review of the CIA's 2016 report on Russian election meddling, which was declassified by Tulsi Gabbard in the summer of 2025 over the CIA's objections.
After Charlie Kirk's assassination in September 2025, Patel called the Southern Poverty Law Center a "partisan smear machine" and cut the FBI's longstanding ties with the non-profit.
In the autumn of 2025 Patel went on Fox News to argue that antifa is a terrorist organisation, not an amorphous social movement. He cited the Department of Justice's own charging document against alleged antifa members in Texas: "We are treating them as terrorists just as we do ISIS or al-Qaeda."
Days before the Iran war began in late February 2026, Patel fired a dozen FBI staff, including several agents who worked in a unit monitoring threats from Iran. They were reportedly dismissed for investigating Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents found at his Florida resort after his first term.
In November 2025 Patel visited Beijing for meetings with China's public-security ministry and other agencies on fentanyl co-operation. The meetings proved productive: on November 10th Chinese officials released a list of 13 chemical precursors that will require extra approvals before sale to customers in America, Canada and Mexico.
Money is its own reward.