Who Is Kashyap Patel—Donald Trump Loyalist Likely To Be Next CIA Chief?
Kashyap Patel had served as one of the top advisers to Trump during his previous term from 2016 to 2020.
US President-elect Donald Trump will likely appoint Indian-origin official Kashyap 'Kash' Patel as the new chief of the Central Intelligence Agency. Patel served as the former chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller under the previous Trump administration.
Trump prepares to assemble a team to run his administration when he takes office in January next year. Patel had served as one of the top advisers to Trump during his previous term from 2016 to 2020.
Who Is Kashyap Patel?
Patel was born to a Gujarati family in New York's Garden City in 1980. His parents had moved to the US in the 1970s from Uganda when Idi Amin was the dictator, according to a WION report.
Patel completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond before returning to New York to earn his law degree, along with a Certificate in International Law from University College London Faculty of Laws in the UK.
Kashyap Patel's Career Record
According to his profile at the Department of Defense website, Patel served as the national security adviser and senior counsel for a US House panel where he spearheaded the investigation into alleged Russian influence during the 2016 presidential election. Concurrently, he oversaw sensitive programmes for the intelligence community and US Special Operations Forces.
Patel also had a tenure as a terrorism prosecutor at the Department of Justice, where he led investigations spanning multiple theaters of conflict and oversaw the successful prosecution of criminals aligned with Al-Qaida, ISIS, and other terror groups. He served as the DOJ Liaison Officer to Joint Special Operations Command, working with US counterterrorism units to conduct collaborative global targeting operations against high value terrorism targets.
