FILE PHOTO: Kash Patel, former chief of staff to the defense secretary speaks on the day Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally, in Prescott Valley, Arizona, U.S., October 13, 2024. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo
Donald Trump's nominee — devoted MAGA ally Kash Patel — could effectively tank the FBI's mission, according to former U.S. attorney and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance.
"This is clearly about revenge prosecutions," the former prosecutor told MSNBC host Ali Velshi Sunday, referring to Patel's nomination to direct the agency. "If you're Donald Trump and you are committed to a series of revenge prosecutions, well, you need someone like Kash Patel — a loyalist — running the FBI for you."
Vance continued, "He is sort of the perfect storm of inexperience and total loyalty to Donald Trump. He's vulnerable to the whims of a strong man like Donald Trump, to borrow from [New York University law professor] Ruth Ben-Ghiat, because that's exactly what we will have. Donald Trump meddling at the FBI."
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The former U.S. attorney then laid out the importance of the work of the agency.
"There is real work that gets done at the FBI day in and day out," Vance said. "The men and women of the FBI are the men and women who protect American society. Every once in a while, we'll see a case where the FBI will preemptively take down a foreign terror operation and we'll all for about five minutes say, 'thank goodness the FBI is doing its job.'"
Vance added, "Taking its eye off of that ball is something that is critically dangerous, and Patel is poorly situated to maintain that focus. So there are real-world implications — not just with foreign and domestic terror — but also for violent crime, for drug trafficking, for civil rights, for the priority areas where the FBI typically works its hardest. Every special agent in charge at an FBI agency across the country is obligated to meet with the director and the deputy director weekly, sometimes more frequently, to talk about the work that they are doing. If Kash Patel is directing that work, it's very likely we will begin to see slippage in the FBI's mission."