WASHINGTON – Kash Patel has been known for years in Donald Trump’s orbit as a loyal supporter who shares the president-elect’s skepticism of the FBI and the intelligence community. But he is the subject of new attention, from the public and Congress, now that Trump has chosen him to lead the FBI.

As he prepares for a bruising and likely protracted fight for Senate confirmationPatel can expect scrutiny not only of his professed loyalty to Trump, but also of his belief – revealed last year in interviews and in his own book – that the century-old FBI should be radically reworked.

Here’s a look at what he proposed for the nation’s first federal law enforcement agency. How much he would actually follow through is a separate question.

He plans to close the FBI headquarters in Washington

The first FBI employees moved into the current headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue 50 years ago. Since then, the building has housed the supervisors and executives who make decisions affecting offices across the country and abroad.

But if Patel has his way, the J. Edgar Hoover Building could be closed and its employees dispersed.

“I would close the Hoover FBI building on day one and reopen it the next day as a ‘deep state’ museum,” Patel said in a September interview on the “Shawn Kelly Show.” “Then I would take the 7,000 employees who work in this building and send them across America to hunt down criminals. Become cops. You are cops, become cops.”

Such a plan would undoubtedly require legal, logistical and bureaucratic hurdles and may reflect more rhetorical flourish than practical ambition.

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 moving headquarters out of Washington “to prevent institutional capture and prevent FBI leaders to get involved. in a political game.

In this case, the long-term fate of the building is evolving regardless of the leadership transition. Last year, the General Services Administration selected Greenbelt, Maryland, as the site for a new headquarters, but Christopher Wray, current director of the FBI raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest in the site selection process.

He spoke of finding “conspirators” within the government and the media.

In an interview last year with conservative strategist Steve Bannon, Patel repeated lies on President Joe Biden and a stolen election.

“We’re going to go after people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig the presidential election,” Patel said. The same applies to so-called “conspirators” within the federal government, he said.

It’s not entirely clear what he envisions, but to the extent that Patel wants to make it easier for the government to crack down on officials who leak sensitive information and journalists who receive it, it appears he would be in favor of a reversal of policy. current policy of the Department of Justice which generally prohibits prosecutors from seizing journalists’ files in leak investigations.

This policy was implemented in 2021 by Attorney General Merrick Garland following outcry over the revelation that the Justice Department under the Trump administration had obtained phone records of journalists. as part of an investigation into who leaked government secrets.

Patel himself said it remains unclear whether such a crackdown would be carried out civilly or criminally. His book includes several pages from former officials of the FBI, the Justice Department and other federal agencies that he identified as part of the “executive branch of the deep state.”

According to the FBI’s own guidelinescriminal investigations cannot be based on arbitrary or unfounded speculation, but rather must have the permissible objective of detecting or interrupting criminal activity.

And while the FBI conducts investigations, the responsibility for filing federal charges or filing a lawsuit on behalf of the federal government falls to the Department of Justice. Trump intends to nominate former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi as attorney general.

He wants a “major, major” reform of surveillance

Patel has been a fierce critic of the FBI’s use of its surveillance authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and in his interview on the “Shawn Kelly Show” he called for “major, major reform.” Tons.”

This position aligns him with both left-wing civil liberties advocates who have long been skeptical of government power and Trump supporters outraged by well-documented surveillance missteps during the FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.

But that sets him apart from FBI leaders, who have stressed the need for the bureau to maintain its ability to spy on suspected spies and terrorists, while implementing corrective measures intended to correct past abuses.

If confirmed, Patel would take over the FBI amid ongoing debate over a particularly controversial provision of FISA known as Section 702, which allows the United States to collect the communications of non-Americans located in the United States without a warrant. outside the country for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence. .

Biden signed a two-year extension of his authority in April following a fierce debate in Congress centered on whether the FBI should be blocked from using the program to search for data on Americans. Although the FBI has a high compliance rate, analysts have been accused of a series of abuses and errors, including improperly querying the intelligence repository for information on Americans or other individuals in the United States, including a congressman and participants in 2020 racial justice protests and the January 6, 2021, riot at the United States Capitol.

Patel made clear his disdain for the reauthorization vote.

“Because FISA’s budget was up this cycle, we asked Congress to correct it. And do you know what the majority in the House did, where the Republicans did? They bent the knee. They (reauthorized) it,” Patel said.

In his book, Patel said a federal defender should be present to defend the rights of the accused during all FISA court proceedings, a departure from the status quo.

He called for reducing the size of the intelligence community

Patel advocated removing the federal government’s intelligence community, including the CIA and the National Security Agency.

As for the FBI, he said last year that he would support separating the bureau’s “intelligence centers” from the rest of its crime-fighting activities.

It’s unclear how he would plan to proceed, given that the FBI’s intelligence-gathering operations are a critical part of the bureau’s mandate and budget. Wray, who has held the position for seven years, also recently warned of a heightened threat environment linked to international and national terrorism.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, then-FBI Director Robert Mueller faced calls from some members of Congress who believed the FBI should be divided, with the creation of a new domestic intelligence agency in the process.

The idea died, and Mueller committed new resources to transforming what for decades had been primarily a domestic law enforcement agency into an intelligence-gathering institution also focused on fighting terrorism , spies and foreign threats.

Frank Montoya Jr., a retired senior FBI official who served as director of the National Counterintelligence Executive office, said he disagreed with the idea of ​​breaking up the FBI’s “intelligence stores.” and that he saw this as a way to dismantle the office.