Washington DC:
Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, has pledged to make the so-called “Diddy list” and the infamous Epstein files public after taking office. Speaking on a podcast, the Indian American loyalist of Mr Trump, who shares the president-elect’s scepticism of the FBI and intelligence community, said he’s committed to restoring trust in federal agencies by exposing decades of alleged corruption.
During the conversation on “Benny Johnson” podcast, Mr Patel said “trust in our agencies and departments” can only be restored by “giving the American people the truth.”
“And that’s what they feared about Donald Trump. He’s gonna come in there and maybe give them the Epstein list, and maybe give them the P. Diddy list, you know, maybe he’s gonna come up there and do all these things, and they’re terrified,” he said
The term “Diddy list” refers to the names of public figures accused of being associated with the rapper Diddy’s alleged “freak-off” parties, where sexual misconduct and grooming allegedly took place.
By picking Kash Patel to lead the United State’s premier federal law enforcement agency, the incoming US President signalled his intention to overhaul the intelligence agency he has long criticized.
However, Mr Patel is expected to face an uphill battle to get a Senate confirmation to take over his appointed role, not only for professed fealty to Mr Trump but also his beliefs — revealed over the last year in interviews and his own book.
Time and again, the MAGA (Make America Great Again) loyalist has said that the century-old Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should be radically overhauled. Kash Patel has proposed shutting down the FBI’s Washington headquarters at J Edgar Hoover Building and dispersing its employees across the country.
“I’d shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state,'” Patel said in a September interview on the “Shawn Kelly Show.”
“Then, I’d take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops. You’re cops — go be cops,” he added.
The first FBI employees moved into the current Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters 50 years ago, according to a report by the Associated Press (AP). Since then, the building reportedly housed scores of supervisors and leaders who make decisions affecting offices around the country and overseas.
Mr Patel’s plan to completely shut the building would require legal, logistical and bureaucratic hurdles and the plan may reflect more of a rhetorical flourish than a practical ambition, the AP report said.
In a book last year titled, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth and the Battle for Our Democracy,” he proposed a more modest reform of having the headquarters moved out of Washington “to prevent institutional capture and curb FBI leadership from engaging in political gamesmanship.”
As it happens, the long-term fate of the iconic building remains in flux regardless of the leadership transition. The General Services Administration reportedly selected last year Greenbelt in Maryland as the site for a new headquarters. However, current FBI Director Christopher Wray has raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest in the site selection process.
Mr Patel has also been a fierce critic of the FBI’s use of its surveillance authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and in his “Shawn Kelly Show” interview, he called for “major, major reform. Tons.”