Friday, February 21, 2025

Kash Patel, former Miami APD and AFPD, confirmed as FBI director

1. From NPR:

The Republican-led Senate voted Thursday to confirm Kash Patel as the new FBI director despite questions about whether he has the qualifications and the temperament to lead the nation's most powerful law enforcement agency.

Patel, a close ally of President Trump and a fierce critic of the FBI, was confirmed by a 51-49 vote, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joining all Democrats in opposing him.


It caps a remarkable rise for Patel, who has worked as a public defender, federal prosecutor and congressional aide before serving as a national security official in President Trump's first term. He later emerged as a fixture in MAGA world, a right-wing podcast regular and a Trump loyalist.

Republicans welcomed his confirmation. They argue that the FBI has unfairly targeted conservatives in recent years, and they see Patel as someone who will fix that purported problem.

"Kash is the right man to clean up the FBI to restore Americans' confidence and trust that the FBI is not a political organization, it is a law enforcement organization," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a post on X.

2.  In other news, Jay Weaver covers Trump's new pick for U.S. Attorney in the SDFLA, Jason Reding Quinones.  The intro:

On paper, President Donald Trump’s new nominee to head the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Florida seems to have solid credentials.

He formerly served as a federal prosecutor in the Miami office, was appointed as a Miami-Dade County judge a year ago by Gov. Ron DeSantis, and he’s a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve.

But there are a couple of things in the background of Jason A. Reding Quiñones that were not highlighted in Trump’s glowing post about him on his media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday, including a name change and that he received poor evaluations as a criminal prosecutor in the same office he has been nominated to head.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

". . . he received poor evaluations as a criminal prosecutor . . " And what is the reason for the poor evaluation? These media reports are hearsay and do not provide any detail. How many prosecutors have not gotten along with their supervisors? A lot. Unless the media can produce the evaluation or interview the lawyer who wrote it, this is a non-issue.

Anonymous said...

If his poor reviews came from the famously corrupt FLSD leadership, is it really a negative?

Anonymous said...

Bingo

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Kash Patel, godspeed and mazel tov!

Anonymous said...

It's funny. This post and a previous one claimed that Quinones and Patel were terrible prosecutors who had poor evaluations. I agree with everyone above. Unless there is something concrete, we have got to stop spreading rumors and disparaging people for no reason.

Anonymous said...

Hearsay and speculation are the Jay Weaver special. His article also says things like: "the civil division ... deals mostly with non-criminal prosecutions." News flash, that's an oxymoron, Jay. And no, Jay, the civil division deals ONLY with 'non-criminal prosecutions.' That's why it's called the civil division. Real deep reporting.

Anonymous said...

But spreading rumors and disparaging people for no reason is the new m.o. for approx. 1/3 of the country, 10:54!

Anonymous said...

Sad but true!

Anonymous said...

How about instead disparaging him for having an enemies list? And for not having the qualifications to lead a department as big and complex as the FBI? And for being a political hack?

Anonymous said...

As far as Kash goes, maybe the proper term is political genius

Rumpole said...

Katel is a dope a fool and a reckless opportunist who has a d- mind and F ethics I was in DC this past week resolving a federal case and the agents have no more fight left in them. They are running scared. They will not be making the types of cases we are used to defending. This will be a shift in what cases we see ala the months after 9/11

Anonymous said...

“Yes, we’re going to be coming after the people in the media…we’re putting you on notice.” Kash Patel. I don’t care how he was as an APD or AFPD, he’s a threat to this country and our Constitution now.