Kash Patel, a one-time aide to President Donald Trump/SCREENGRAB
Kash Patel, a one-time aide to President Donald Trump, will inch closer to leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) when he sits for his US Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday.
Patel, a former Department of Defence (DoD) chief of staff, is a fervent Trump supporter and a fellow critic of the US government's top law enforcement agency.
He has previously suggested dramatically limiting the FBI's authority, which Republicans believe has unfairly targeted conservatives in recent years. The FBI's outgoing director Christopher Wray has denied such allegations.
Critics say Patel is unqualified to lead the agency and wants to use the job to effect partisan retribution on critics of Trump.
The FBI director leads 37,000 employees across 55 US field offices. They also oversee 350 satellite offices and more than 60 other foreign locations expected to cover almost 200 countries.
The confirmation hearing will see Patel questioned by senators from across the political divide.
Democrats are likely to focus on Patel's previous attacks on the FBI, as well as his professional experience and past track record at the hearing.
Knowledgeable sources told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, earlier this week that Democratic senators would seek to show that Patel had engaged in a pattern of poor judgment and self-aggrandisement, to cast doubt on his fitness to lead the FBI.
In recent days, Democrat Dick Durbin, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a letter saying Patel was "unfit to lead" the agency.
Citing an unnamed source, Durbin accused Patel of leaking news of an exchange of American hostages held by Houthis in Yemen in October 2020 to the Wall Street Journal "several hours before the hostages were in confirmed custody of the United States" - potentially endangering the deal.
A source close to Patel spoke of his achievements in a statement to CBS. "Mr Patel was a public defender, decorated prosecutor, and accomplished national security official that kept Americans safe," they said.
"He has a track record of success in every branch of government, from the court room to congressional hearing room to the situation room," the statement added. "There is no veracity to this anonymous source's complaints about protocol."
Alex Gray, former chief of staff for the National Security Council (NSC) during the first Trump administration, further rebuffed Durbin's letter in his own statement to CBS, calling the source's statements "simply absurd".
"In everything he did at the NSC and DoD, Kash put the interests of the American people, and particularly the interests of American hostages and unlawful detainees and their families, first."
Patel is also likely to be questioned on his previous comments about the FBI - the leadership of which he has strongly criticised in the past.
In his memoir Government Gangster, published in 2023, Patel called for an eradication of what he called "government tyranny" within the FBI by firing "the top ranks".
Since his appointment, he has made headlines for his so-called enemies list - a list of people in his book appendix who he says are members of the "deep-state".
The 60-name roster includes former President Joe Biden, former Attorney General Merrick Garland and former National Security Adviser John Bolton, among others.
Some Americans believe the "deep state", of which Patel is critical, is a synonym for an unelected bureaucratic machine that secretly runs the country for sinister purposes.
Attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, who would be Patel's boss if both are confirmed by the Senate, told lawmakers during her confirmation hearing earlier this month that there would be no enemies list at the Department of Justice (DoJ) under her leadership.
Patel, the son of Indian immigrants, is a former defence lawyer and federal prosecutor. He caught the attention of Trump - who was then serving his first time as president - after becoming a senior counsel to the House of Representatives intelligence committee in 2017.
He quickly rose within Trump's circle after he was hired as a national security aide in 2019, and in 2020 was appointed chief of staff to the head of the Pentagon.
As well as his 2023 memoir, Patel has published two pro-Trump children's books.
He is on the board of Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns Trump's social media platform, Truth Social. He has also reportedly had a consulting contract with the company.
After announcing Patel as his FBI pick, Trump posted on social media calling him "an advocate for truth, accountability, and the constitution".
"Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and 'America First' fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice, and protecting the American people," Trump said.
