From Newsweek:
Full List of Kash Patel's 'Government Gangsters' Who Could Be Targeted
President-elect Donald Trump nominated his longtime aide and fierce ally, Kash Patel, to serve as the next director of the FBI.
Trump lauded Patel for having done an "incredible job during my First Term, where he served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense, Deputy Director of National intelligence, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council."
The president-elect went on to say Patel played a "pivotal role" in "uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax," and noted that was a key factor in his decision to tap Patel to lead the FBI.
Indeed, Patel is one of Trump's staunchest defenders and has publicly railed against the "Deep State" political establishment and called to root out government employees deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump.
Patel singled out many of those people in his book, "Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy," published in September 2023.
The Bulwark's Tim Miller pointed the list out on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday afternoon. Some of those on Patel's list weren't even aware they were on it until after Miller posted about it.
"Just learned I'm included on this list," former Justice Department spokesperson Sarah Isgur, who worked under Trump, wrote on X. "I've never met Patel or attended any meetings where he was present as far as I know."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's transition team via email and Patel via his website, Fight with Kash, on Monday night for comment. This article will be updated with any statements that are provided.
Here are the other current and former officials in Patel's crosshairs, according to the book, which notes that the list is not exhaustive:
- Michael Atkinson: former Inspector General of the Intelligence Community.
- Lloyd Austin: U.S. Secretary of Defense.
- Brian Auten: FBI official who supervised the bureau's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
- James Baker: the former general counsel of the FBI and former deputy general counsel at Twitter.
- Bill Barr: attorney general under Trump.
- John Bolton: Trump's one-time national security adviser.
- Stephen Boyd: the former head of legislative affairs at the Justice Department.
- Joe Biden: President of the United States.
- John Brennan: former CIA director who served under President Barack Obama.
- John Carlin: former acting deputy attorney general and the former head of the national security division at the Justice Department.
- Eric Ciaramella: former Ukraine director of the National Security Council under Obama and former deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council.
- Pat Cipollone: former White House counsel under Trump.
- James Clapper: former director of national intelligence during the Obama administration.
- Hillary Clinton: former Secretary of State under Obama and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.
- James Comey: former FBI director who was fired by Trump in 2017.
- Elizabeth Dibble: former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in London.
- Mark Esper: Secretary of Defense under Trump.
- Alyssa Farah Griffin: former director of strategic communications under Trump and former Pentagon spokesperson.
- Evelyn Farkas: former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia during the Obama administration.
- Merrick Garland: U.S. attorney general.
- Stephanie Grisham: Trump's former press secretary and incoming First Lady Melania Trump's former chief of staff.
- Kamala Harris: Vice President of the United States and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.
- Gina Haspel: former CIA director under Trump.
- Fiona Hill: former National Security Council official under Trump specializing in Russia and Ukraine. Hill was one of the officials who testified at Trump's first impeachment proceeding.
- Curtis Heide: FBI supervisory agent who was investigated for "not identifying exculpatory information as it pertained to one of the Crossfire Hurricane investigations," referring to the FBI's codename for the 2016 Russia inquiry.
- Eric Holder: attorney general during the Obama administration.
- Robert Her: Justice Department special counsel who investigated Joe Biden's handling of classified government documents.
- Cassidy Hutchinson: former aide to Trump's ex-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who testified to Congress' January 6 select committee about Trump's actions related to the Capitol riot.
- Nina Jankowicz: former executive director of the Disinformation Governance Board during the Biden administration.
- Lois Lerner: former director of the Internal Revenue Service under Obama.
- Charles Kupperman: former deputy national security adviser during Trump's first term.
- Kenneth Mackenzie: former head of the United States Central Command and retired Marine Corps General.
- Andrew McCabe: former deputy FBI director during Trump's first term.
- Ryan McCarthy: former secretary of the Army under Trump.
- Mary McCord: the Justice Department's former acting assistant attorney general for national security during the Obama administration.
- Denis McDonough: former Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Obama's one-time chief of staff.
- Mark Milley: former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who called Trump "fascist" and said he was "the most dangerous person to this country."
- Lisa Monaco: deputy U.S. attorney general.
- Sally Moyer: former supervisory lawyer at the FBI.
- Robert Mueller: former FBI director and special counsel who investigated links between the Trump campaign and Russia-linked individuals.
- Bruce Ohr: former associate deputy attorney general who was heavily criticized by Trump and his allies over his contact with the former British spy Christopher Steele, who wrote the so-called Steele dossier..
- Nellie Ohr: Ohr's wife, a former CIA employee who later worked as an independent contractor for Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned the Steele dossier.
- Lisa Page: former FBI lawyer who criticized Trump in text messages with FBI official Peter Strzok.
- Pat Philbin: former deputy White House counsel under Trump.
- John Podesta: senior adviser to Biden, Bill Clinton's former White House chief of staff, former counselor to Obama, and the chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.
- Samantha Power: administrator of the United States Agency for International Development under Biden and former ambassador to the United Nations under Obama.
- Bill Priestap: former assistant director of the FBI's counterintelligence division.
- Susan Rice: former national security adviser to Obama.
- Rod Rosenstein: former deputy attorney general who appointed Mueller to oversee the Trump-Russia investigation.
- Peter Strzok: former deputy assistant director of the FBI's counterintelligence division who criticized Trump in private texts with Lisa Page.
- Jake Sullivan: Biden's national security adviser.
- Michael Sussmann: former Democratic lawyer who was charged with lying to the FBI; Sussmann was acquitted in 2022.
- Miles Taylor: former Department of Homeland Security official during the Trump administration who later wrote an anonymous opinion piece criticizing Trump. Taylor later admitted to writing the piece.
- Timothy Thibault: former assistant special agent at the FBI's field office in Washington, D.C.
- Andrew Weissmann: former DOJ official and former assistant U.S. attorney who served as Mueller's second-in-command during the Russia probe.
- Alexander Vindman: former Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council under Trump. Vindman testified against Trump during his first impeachment proceeding.
- Christopher Wray: director of the FBI.
- Sally Yates: former acting attorney general under Trump and former deputy attorney general under Obama. Trump fired Yates weeks into his first term after she refused to enforce his executive order instating an immigration ban on individuals coming from some Muslim-majority countries.
