Joe Lombardo Signals Support of Kash Patel Nomination for FBI Director As Patel Promises to Prosecute Political Opponents

Last week, Joe Lombardo posted support for conspiracy theorist Kash Patel’s nomination for FBI Director as former Trump officials warn of massive damage to the department if Patel is confirmed. Patel, who has virtually no management experience but has been described as Trump’s “political executioner”, has faced bipartisan blowback, including from Trump’s former National Security Adviser, who compared the nomination to Joseph Stalin’s secret police chief. 

“Joe Lombardo should know better than to support the nomination of an unqualified, far-right conspiracy theorist who promised to prosecute Donald Trump’s political opponents to lead the nation’s top law enforcement agency,” said Nevada State Democratic Party spokesperson Tai Sims. “While Democrats are laser-focused on the 2025 legislative session and delivering for working-class families, Joe Lombardo is already bending the knee in favor of Donald Trump’s extreme agenda, jeopardizing Americans’ safety just to score political points.”

Kash Patel Has A History of Promising to Prosecute Donald Trump’s Perceived Political Enemies And Supporting Insurrectionists:

-- “Patel asserted how he would handle reporters if he were put in power. ‘We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,’ Patel said then. ‘Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.’” [NBC News, 12/4/24]

-- “Since leaving office, Patel has promised in interviews that, if Trump returns to office, he and others will use the government to go after political opponents – including politicians and members of the media who he alleges without evidence helped overturn the 2020 US presidential election results. [BBC, 12/2/24]

-- “As for who should be investigated first, Patel suggested in January that it be Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a physician and immunologist who has become a major target of Covid-era conspiracy theories. ‘Fauci, I guess, is the one-word name that you can say is deserving of an entire investigation,’ he said.” [NBC News, 12/8/24]

-- “The Kash Foundation is a nonprofit that Mr. Patel has said offers financial help to a range of recipients, including the families of people charged for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.” [New York Times, 11/30/24] 

Former Trump Officials Are Ringing The Alarm Bells of A Patel Appointment to Lead the FBI And Warned of Massive Damage to the Agency Given His Record and Inexperience:

-- “Former [Trump-appointed] US Attorney General Bill Barr’s recollection in his 2022 memoir of Trump’s attempt to place Patel in a senior FBI position in his first term to stress the point further. ‘I categorically opposed making Patel deputy FBI director. I told Mark Meadows it would happen ‘over my dead body,’’ he wrote. [BBC, 12/2/24]

-- ‘He’ll literally do anything.’ John Bolton, who served as national security adviser in Trump’s first term and was Patel’s boss, compared the nomination to Joseph Stalin’s secret police chief. [CBS News, 12/2/24]

-- “Former FBI Special Agent Daniel Brunner said if President-elect Trump chooses loyalist and former Trump administration aide Kash Patel to lead the FBI, it would do ‘massive damage’ to the agency. […] Brunner later added that Patel ‘has no experience leading an organization, no less a Cub Scout pack.’” [The Hill, 11/18/24] 

-- “From 2021 to 2023, Kash Patel made content for The Epoch Times, a news organization known for its far-right conspiracy theories, its association with a Chinese dissident religious group, and, since June, a sprawling multimillion-dollar money laundering scheme allegedly perpetrated by one of its top executives.” [NBC News, 12/8/24]