Kash Patel's Deep State List

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Kash Patel, a former federal prosecutor and government official, will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee today for his second day of questioning regarding his nomination to be the next Director of the FBI.  Patel, who has been accused of promoting conspiracy theories, seems to have a clear path forward with Republican members of the committee and will likely end up being confirmed a the nation's 9th Director of the FBI.

Regardless, however, of the final disposition of his nomination, Patel is facing tough questioning from Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee, and yesterday's session was contentious.  At one point in yesterday's hearing he insisted that he did not have an "enemies list," and while that technically may be true, he does have a list of people whom he regards as members of an "Executive Branch Deep State" and who seem to give him great concern.  (He recently said that if he became Director of the FBI, he would have the agency vacate it's current headquarters in Washington, DC, and turn the building into a "deep state" museum.

Kash Patel, in the appendix of his 2022 book entitled "Government Gangsters," published a list of people whom he considered to be members of the "Executive Branch Deep State."  The list is easy to find on the internet today, and I am also including it in today's blog posting as a way of memorializing it in "Pa Rock's Ramble," my long-winded chronicle of the times.

Here are the top sixty individuals in the national government who seem to have been giving Kash Patel the most personal angst - or at least they were three years ago.  But, according to the potential next Director of the FBI, they are not "enemies."

Kash Patel's "Executive Branch Deep State" List:

1. Michael Anderson:  Former inspector general of the intelligence community
2. Lloyd Austin:  Secretary of Defense under Biden
3. Brian Auten:  Supervisory intelligence analyst, FBI
4. James Baker:  Former general counsel for the FBI and Twitter executive
5. Bill Barr:  Former attorney general under Trump
6. John Bolton:  Former national security adviser under Trump
7. Stephen Boyd:  Former chief of legislative affairs, FBI
8. Joe Biden:  Former President of the United States
9. John Brennan:  Former CIA director under Obama
10. John Carlin:  Former DOJ national security division head under Trump
11. Eric Ciaramella:  Former National Security Council staffer
12. Pat Cipollone:  Former White House counsel under Trump
13. James Clapper:  Former director of national intelligence under Obama
14.  Hillary Clinton:  Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate
15. James Comey:  Former FBI director 
16. Elizabeth Dibble:  Former chief of mission, US embassy, London
17. Mark Esper:  Former Secretary of Defense under Trump
18. Alyssa Farah:  Former strategic communications director under Trump
19. Evelyn Farkas:  Former Pentagon official under Obama
20. Sarah Isgur Flores:  Former DOJ communications head under Trump
21. Merrick Garland:  Attorney General under Biden
22. Stephanie Grisham:  Former White House Press Secretary under Trump
23. Kamala Harris:  Former Vice President and presidential candidate
24. Gina Haspel:  Former CIA director under Trump
25. Fiona Hill:  Former National Security Council staffer
26. Curtis Heide:  FBI agent
27. Eric Holder:  Former Attorney General under Obama
28. Robert Hur:  Special counsel for Biden document investigation
29. Cassidy Hutchinson:  Former assistant to Trump Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows
30. Nina Jankowicz:  Former head of Biden's Disinformation Governance Board
31. Lois Lerner:  Former IRS official under Obama
32. Loretta Lynch:  Former US Attorney General under Obama
33. Charles Kupperman:  Former deputy national security adviser under Trump
34. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie (Ret.):  Former CENTCOM commander
35. Andrew McCabe:  Former FBI director
36. Ryan McCarthy:  Former Secretary of the Army under Trump
37. Mary McCord:  Former DOJ national security division head
38. Denis McDonough:  Former Obama chief of staff, former VA Secretary
39. Gen. Mark Milley (Ret.):  Former chairman of ther Joint Chiefs of Staff
40. Lisa Monaco:  Deputy attorney general under Biden
41. Robert Mueller:  Former FBI director and Russiagate special counsel
42. Bruce Ohr:  Former DOJ official under Obama and Trump
43. Nellie Ohr:  Former CIA employee
44. Lisa Page:  Former FBI counsel
45. Pat Philbin:  Former Deputy White House Counsel under Trump
46. John Podesta:  Former Obama adviser, former Biden climate adviser
47. Samantha Power:  Former US Ambassador under Obama, former USAID Administrator
48. Bill Priestap:  Former FBI counterintelligence chief
49. Susan Rice:  Former Obama National Security Adviser
50. Rod Rosenstein:  Former deputy attorney general under Trump
51. Peter Strzok:  Former FBI counterintelligence agent
52. Jake Sullivan:  National Security Adviser under Biden
53. Michael Sussman:  Former DNC lawyer
54. Miles Taylor::  Former DHS official under Trump
55. Timothy Thibault: Former FBI agent
56. Andrew  Weissman: Mueller's Russiagate deputy
57. Alexander Vindman:  Former National Security Council official
58. Christopher Wray:  Former FBI director under Trump and Biden
59. Sally Yates:  Former deputy attorney general under Obama
60. Adam Schiff:  US Senator and former House Intelligence Committee chairman

Kash Patel's list may not be his "enemies," but it does serve to flesh out the imaginary "deep state"  that Donald Trump and his allies all want us to believe in and fear.

It is interesting that quite a few on Patel's list seem to have connections with some investigation of Donald Trump, including Christopher Wray, the man appointed by Trump to head the FBI after he fired James Comey, and the man who will have been Patel's direct predecessor in that job if Patel is confirmed.

It is also interesting that of the three Democratic candidates who ran against Trump for President, all made Patel's list as members of the "Executive Branch Deep State," yet Trump did not.

It almost seems as if perhaps the list is of Trump's perceived enemies - and might have been drafted as a way for its creator to ingratiate himself to Donald Trump and perhaps open the door for a cushy government job.

And finally, Adam Schiff is on the list.  Kash Patel probably should not count on Senator Schiff's vote for his confirmation to that cushy government job.