On Thursday, February 20th, 2025, the U.S. Senate confirmed Kash Patel as Director of the FBI by a vote of 51 to 49, marking a new phase for this key law enforcement agency. Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joined Democrats in voting no.

Kash Patel was born in New York State in the 1980s to Indian immigrant parents. He earned a bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Richmond and a juris doctorate from Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

He first worked in the Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor, in charge of national security and terrorism cases. Later, he joined the House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) and helped write the "Nunes memo", a classified memo on the FBI and Department of Justice's "Russiagate" investigation declassified by the HPSCI of the US Congress on February 2nd, 2018. After that, he was in charge of counter-terrorism affairs at the National Security Council and served as the chief of staff to the Secretary of Defense at the end of the Trump administration, participating in the decision-making of the US military's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Patel is a long-time Trump supporter who has publicly expressed a desire to root out the "Deep State". That background has raised concerns among critics about his ability to maintain the FBI's independence from White House influence. President Donald Trump has made clear he plans to go after political opponents during his second term, and Patel is expected to play a major role in those efforts.

Democrats strongly opposed Patel's appointment. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats even staged a protest in front of FBI headquarters. "Mark my words, Kash Patel will do evil in this building, and those who voted for him will regret it," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, warned at a news conference.

"Mr. Patel has made highly politically charged comments in books and other venues that disparage the work of the FBI. And he is the very person who has been nominated to lead the agency," Republican Senator Collins said in a statement. "This raises questions about his ability to carry out the FBI's law enforcement responsibilities without political motivations."

However, numerous Republicans defended Patel. Senate Majority Whip and Wyoming Senator John Barrasso said: "If you want to defend constitutional rights, pursue justice and accountability, and protect community safety, then support Kash Patel." He emphasized that Patel is "loyal to the rule of law and has the ability to lead the FBI."

Patel will succeed Christopher Wray as director. Wray was nominated by Trump for a 10-year term but was replaced early, with Republicans accusing him of politicizing the FBI, particularly over the search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

As for the future direction of the FBI, Patel said he plans to make sweeping reforms, including "going after those in the media who lied to American citizens and helped Joe Biden rig the election." In his book "Government Gangsters", he listed members of the so-called "Members of the Executive Branch Deep State", which Democrats criticized as an "enemy list." At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, he dodged questions about whether he would investigate officials on a so-called enemy list included in an appendix to his book "Government Gangsters".

After his confirmation, Patel tweeted on X: "The politicization of our justice system has eroded public trust - but that ends today. As Director, my mission is clear: empower good cops to do their jobs and rebuild trust in the FBI."

FBI-ATF power merger: Kash Patel's "dual rule"

In February, the U.S. judicial system faced the most severe personnel earthquake in a decade. After the Trump administration violently purged the core legal team of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), officials from the Department of Justice broke the news that they would break historical practice and appoint new FBI Director Kash Patel to also serve as acting director of the ATF.

New FBI Director Kash Patel, who has just experienced fierce debate in the Senate, will receive a second appointment - to serve as Acting Director of the ATF - driven by Republicans. The former White House deputy adviser, who was once called "Trump's constitutional crisis manipulator" by the New York Times, may now control the two core law enforcement agencies in the United States:

FBI: 13,500 agents, annual budget $11.2 billion

ATF: 5,000 agents oversee the circulation of 280 million civilian firearms in the United States

On his first day in office, Patel signed two controversial orders:

1. Institutional restructuring: 1,500 personnel from the FBI’s Washington headquarters will be transferred to Texas, Alaska and other Republican-controlled states. Internal documents show that among them are 87 engineers from the Cyber Crime Division and 210 analysts from the Counterterrorism Intelligence Department.

2. Review mechanism: All new ATF regulations are required to undergo a "Constitutional Second Amendment Compliance Review" by the FBI Office of Legal Counsel.

On February 20th, Attorney General Pam Bondi suddenly fired ATF General Counsel Pamela Hicks.

Hicks is not only a veteran of the Department of Justice with 23 years of experience, but also a core figure in the field of ATF weapons technology - her team once led the development of the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) ballistic tracking system, which helps solve more than 100,000 gun-related cases in the United States every year.

Hicks, who was fired, warned at a congressional hearing in 2024: "If the annual maintenance budget of NIBIN is less than $370 million, the system matching error rate will exceed 18%." Currently, the following changes have occurred in the technical department of the ATF:

• Data outage: Chicago police reported that the NIBIN system will not be able to synchronize interstate gun purchase records starting from February 25th.

• Loss of experts: Erin Kaufman, chief scientist of ballistic analysis, submitted her resignation. The 3D bullet casing dent algorithm developed by her team was originally planned to increase tracking efficiency by 60%.

• Aging equipment: ATF internal assessment shows that 37% of ballistic microscopes have not been replaced for more than 8 years, violating federal equipment renewal standards

This restructuring of the judicial system has triggered a chain reaction:

1. Brain drain: Department of Justice data show that the number of federal prosecutors resigning surged 340% year-on-year in the last week of February

2. The rise of state rights: Texas, Florida and other states announced the formation of the "Second Amendment Defense Alliance" to self-censor gun dealers

3. Global attention: Interpol lowered the U.S. gun control rating from "A2" to "B1", which may affect intelligence sharing between 37 countries and the United States.