AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Writing a farewell speech is kind of like writing your own eulogy, right? One last attempt to define your legacy and to shape the world that you're leaving behind. So it is worth paying attention to what FBI Director Christopher Wray told his employees on Wednesday when he announced that he would resign at the end of the Biden administration.
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CHRISTOPHER WRAY: What absolutely, positively cannot, must not change is our commitment to doing the right thing, in the right way, every time. Our adherence to our core values, our dedication to independence and objectivity, and our defense of the rule of law.
CHANG: President-elect Donald Trump saw Wray's tenure very differently. He called Wray's resignation a great day for America - the end of the, quote, "weaponization of the Justice Department." And he had already announced another pick for FBI director, implying that Wray would be fired at the start of Trump's second term. But the thing is, Trump gave Christopher Wray the job in the first place. Trump nominated him back in 2017 because he had just fired Wray's predecessor, James Comey. Trump's explanation for that firing changed over time. In an interview with NBC, he said Comey was a grandstander who had left the agency in turmoil. But he also said this.
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DONALD TRUMP: When I decided to just do it, I said to myself - I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election.
CHANG: At the time, the FBI had been investigating potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. Trump insisted that he was not trying to kill that investigation.
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CHANG: FBI directors are appointed to a 10-year term that is meant to insulate them from pressure from the president. So after Trump cut Comey's term short, the question of independence was at the very center of the confirmation hearing for his replacement. Christopher Wray promised that he would be unswayed by political pressure.
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WRAY: I have way, way, way too much respect and affection, frankly, for the men and women of the FBI to do anything less than that. And I would just say anybody who thinks that I would be pulling punches as the FBI director sure doesn't know me very well.
CHANG: But eventually, Wray's independent actions at the FBI drew fire from Trump as well. During his presidency, when the bureau's agents continued to investigate Russian election interference, and after Trump's presidency, when the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago resort in a classified documents case. Trump talked about it on NBC's "Meet The Press" over the weekend.
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TRUMP: He invaded my home. I'm suing the country over it. He invaded Mar-a-Lago. I'm very unhappy with the things he's done. And crime is at an all-time high.
CHANG: Soon, Wray will be gone, and the independence of the FBI is again an open question. Trump's new pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, has talked about going after Trump's political opponents. Trump was asked about this in that NBC interview.
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KRISTEN WELKER: Is it your expectation, though, that Kash Patel will pursue investigations against your political enemies?
TRUMP: No, I don't think so.
WELKER: Do you want to see that happen?
TRUMP: If they were crooked, if they did something wrong, if they have broken the law - probably. They went after me. You know, they went after me, and I did nothing wrong.
CHANG: CONSIDER THIS - Kash Patel has built a brand promoting pro-Trump conspiracy theories. What can that tell us about his plans for the FBI?
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CHANG: From NPR, I'm Ailsa Chang.
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CHANG: It's CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR. President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, held several national security positions in the first Trump administration. Since then, he's found money and attention as a pro-Trump influencer, promoting conspiracy theories. NPR's Lisa Hagen reports on how those narratives have helped inspire Patel's public threats to go after Trump's perceived enemies.
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LISA HAGEN, BYLINE: What you're hearing is a promotional music video for a children's book written by Kash Patel. It's about a plot to steal an election from a noble leader called King Donald.
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UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing) The plot against the king. The plot against the king.
HAGEN: "The Plot Against The King" children's books are a trilogy in which a wizard named Kash the Distinguished Discoverer helps King Donald defeat characters like Hillary Queenton and Comma-la-la-la. Patel started his career as a public defender and later became a federal prosecutor. During Trump's first term, Patel's work as a congressional aide defending the president got him noticed. He went on to hold several national security positions. The Trump transition team says that's why Patel is, quote, "beyond qualified" to be FBI director. Patel did not respond to interview requests from NPR. He wrote another book - this one for adults. It's called "Government Gangsters," a phrase he explains in a trailer for a documentary adaptation of the book.
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KASH PATEL: Government gangsters are the group of individuals, career bureaucrats, who have been installed by what we call the deep state into every agency and department in the United States government.
HAGEN: The deep state is one of Patel's main talking points, according to Russell Muirhead. He teaches political science at Dartmouth College and studies the impact of conspiracy theories on democracy.
RUSSELL MUIRHEAD: The deep state conspiracy refers to the idea that a huge raft of governmental officials are actually hostile to the president, and want to obstruct him, and want to disempower his constituents and his movement.
HAGEN: Muirhead says what's important about the deep state idea, whether people truly believe it or not, is how it functions. It's a concept that legitimizes a project to disrupt or disable the parts of government that don't bend to Trump's will.
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PATEL: They have spent decades building this institution of the deep state, and it will take one more Trump term to completely annihilate it and swing an anvil through that place.
HAGEN: That's Patel, speaking just before the election at a stop of the ReAwaken Tour in North Carolina. Patel's contributions to deep state lore made him a popular guest at right-wing events like these.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: All right, folks. Kash Patel is a patron and freedom fighter. Kash Patel is...
HAGEN: The ReAwaken Tour is a speaker circuit and product expo thick with modern pro-Trump conspiracy theories, including QAnon. Its adherents believe, among other things, that an anonymous internet poster revealed secret knowledge about deep state collaboration with a cabal of pedophile elites to secretly traffic children and consume their blood. Many QAnon believers also look forward to, quote, "the storm," which they anticipate would include mass arrests or punishing the cabal and members of the deep state. Here's Patel in 2022, talking to pro-Trump influencer Mary Grace.
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PATEL: You know, the Q thing is a movement. A lot of people attach themselves to it. I disagree with a lot of what that movement says, but I agree with what a lot of that movement says.
HAGEN: Asked to clarify, a Trump transition team spokesperson said, quote, "This is a pathetic attempt at guilt by association." Patel has tended not to focus on the pedophile part of the Q belief system, but he has been a guest on at least a dozen podcasts that have spread QAnon content or related conspiracy theories. Here's Muirhead again.
MUIRHEAD: It does seem that he's happy to embrace the whole train of conspiratorial assertions associated with, or even that define, Donald Trump. He's happy to embrace QAnon. It delivers him to an audience of sympathetic listeners and watchers.
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PATEL: Check out the T-shirts, the hoodies, the Christmastime specials and so much more.
HAGEN: Patel has used his exposure to plug a whole range of products.
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PATEL: Which is the hottest-selling merch in America. Our logos, our creativity are out of the world.
HAGEN: He's promoted supplements that claim to detoxify the supposed negative effects of COVID vaccines. Patel also sells Kash-branded wine - he spells the S with a dollar sign. At least some of his merchandise proceeds benefit charity through his foundation, which he says has supported January 6 defendants, among others.
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PATEL: Every dollar that comes out of the merchandise sales from Fightwithkash.com goes right back into the coffer to help everyday Americans.
HAGEN: In its public tax filings from 2023 - the foundation's first full year of operation - it spent more money on marketing than it gave away. Patel has also promoted false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. And last year, he promised payback.
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PATEL: We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media. Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you.
HAGEN: That's from an appearance on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon's talk show. Patel has sued journalists for defamation and recently threatened to sue a former Trump official after she argued he's unfit to lead the FBI. Charles Kupperman is a former deputy national security adviser to Trump, who said he didn't vote for either candidate in the last election. He told NPR he didn't trust Patel when they overlapped at the National Security Council, and he's not impressed with how Patel has spent the last four years.
CHARLES KUPPERMAN: Writing pseudo-children's books about a king and so forth doesn't strike me as a strong resume for an individual to become FBI director.
HAGEN: Patel's "Government Gangsters" book includes a list of people he considers part of the deep state. Kupperman is on it, though he says that's not going to stop him from sharing his opinion about Patel. The FBI has traditionally operated independently from the president, but Kupperman now worries...
KUPPERMAN: Kash will be a propagandist for Donald Trump. He will carry out any orders that the White House president gives him. And he will have an opportunity - if he is confirmed at the FBI - to invoke retribution against individuals, and it will not be a pretty picture.
HAGEN: A Trump spokesperson told NPR that as FBI director, Kash Patel will end the weaponization of the agency. For Muirhead - the Dartmouth professor - there's another concern about a conspiracist influencer at the head of the Bureau.
MUIRHEAD: Maybe the FBI could be used to support, to generate conspiratorial narratives that delegitimate the opposition and empower the regime.
HAGEN: Patel has spent the week on Capitol Hill, making his case to senators about why he deserves the job.
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CHANG: That was NPR's Lisa Hagen. This episode was produced by Audrey Nguyen and Connor Donevan, with audio engineering by Zoe vanGinhoven, with additional reporting by Jude Joffe-Block. It was edited by Brett Neely, Eric McDaniel and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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CHANG: It's CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR. I'm Ailsa Chang.
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