The 9th director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was born in Garden City, New York, to Indian Gujarati immigrant parents.(FBI) since February 21, 2025 is an American lawyer, former federal prosecutor, government official, and conspiracy theorist Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel, who was born on February 25, 1980, and is more often known as Kash Patel.
While Donald Trump was in office, this Republican held many positions, including those of senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence, chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense, and member of the National Security Council. To my knowledge, Patel has never before been the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
Patel has held the positions of senior director of the National Security Council's Counterterrorism Directorate since 2019 and senior counsel on counterterrorism for the House Intelligence Committee since 2017. He was a top adviser to House Intelligence Committee head Devin Nunes while Nunes was in office. Patel was an invaluable asset to Republicans' investigations into Trump and Russian meddling in the 2016 election while he was working with Nunes. Patel played a key role in the 2018 Nunes memo that accused the FBI of falsifying a surveillance warrant application involving a Trump 2016 campaign associate.
There are a number of conspiracy theories that Patel has pushed and marketed under the "K$H" logotype. He is on the board of directors and as president of the Alexandria, Virginia-based Kash Foundation. And he's the proud owner of Trishul, a consultancy business.
== From childhood and schooling ==
The son of Indian Gujarati immigrants, Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel came into this world on February 25, 1980, in Garden City, New York. In response to ethnic persecution in Uganda, his parents emigrated to Canada in the early 1970s. After that, they emigrated to America, where his dad took a job as a chief financial officer for an aircraft company. Hinduism was Patel's upbringing. Long Island's Garden City High School was Patel's alma mater.
The University of Richmond awarded Patel a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and criminal justice in 2002, following his graduation from high school. After earning a diploma in international law from England's University College London in 2004, he went on to earn his JD from New York's Pace University School of Law in 2005.
Work History
[2006–2014]: Worked as a public defender.
Upon graduating from law school, Patel relocated to Florida and became a member of the Tampa Bar in April 2006. He then worked as a public defender for eight years, initially for Miami-Dade County and subsequently for the federal government. He defended people accused of serious crimes while working as a public defender, including as murder, narcotics trafficking, weapons offenses, and smuggling large sums of money.
Trial attorney at the Department of Justice (2014–2017)
Joining the US Department of Justice in 2014, Patel began his trial career in the National Security Division. He also acted as a legal liaison for the Joint Special Operations Command at that time. Patel became the House Intelligence Committee's senior counsel for counterterrorism in 2017.
(2017–2018): Nunes's senior adviser on the House Intelligence Committee
House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes appointed Patel as senior committee staffer in April 2017. Patel was a leading figure in the Republican stance against the probes into Trump's campaign and Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
The New York Times reports that Patel was leading the charge in producing the 2018 Nunes memo that accused the FBI of wrongdoing in seeking a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence monitoring Court (FISC) to conduct electronic monitoring on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser. The head of the committee's staff, a Nunes spokesman, and anonymous individuals who talked with India Abroad all denied the accusation. Patel refrained from making any statement about the subject. "It galvanized President Trump’s allies and made Mr. Patel a hero among them," the New York Times said, despite widespread dismissal of the memo as "biased" and including "cherry-picked facts."
For approximately one month following the House Democrats' January 2019 takeover, Patel served as senior counsel for the House Reform and Oversight Committee.
[Trump administration posts in the executive branch from 2019 to 2020]
IN 2019, he served as the NSC's senior director of counterterrorism.
Patel began his career in February 2019 as an international organizations and alliances directorate worker for President Trump's National Security Council (NSC). In July 2019, he was appointed to the newly-created post of senior director of the Counterterrorism Directorate. The Wall Street Journal reports that in early 2020, Patel secretly traveled to Damascus to negotiate the release of Majd Kamalmaz and journalist Austin Tice, who were both detained by the Syrian regime. Nothing came of the talks.
[2019]: Unofficial position as an expert in Ukrainian policy
According to certain advisors, notably NSC member Fiona Hill, Patel quickly started acting as an extra independent back channel for the president after joining the NSC. This was happening despite the fact that he was considered unqualified for his UN responsibility. While Trump sought to "discuss related documents with Patel" because he was "one of his top Ukraine policy specialists," advisors like Hill—who had a tense relationship with Trump—raised warning flags since Patel's real task was counterterrorism concerns, not Ukraine. Many believed he had done business outside of Rudy Giuliani's unofficial, informal conduit. Questioning witnesses regarding Patel was a common tactic in the impeachment process. Hill informed the investigators that it appeared as though "Patel was improperly becoming involved in Ukraine policy and was sending information to Mr. Trump." George Kent and Gordon Sondland stated that they had not seen Patel throughout their assignment.
Politico claimed in October 2019 that Patel had "unique access" to Trump and had given him "out of scope" advice on US policy toward Ukraine, citing an unidentified person who had previously worked for the White House. Patel refuted the allegations and sought $25 million in damages by suing Politico for defamation. Since Patel did not reside in the state where the lawsuit was lodged, the court lacked the authority to hear the case and rejected it in April 2020. In these and other instances, Patel's residence status became a problem. March 15, 2022, the Henrico Circuit Court of Virginia decided that the matter did not constitute a lawsuit after receiving referral from the previous court.
The House Intelligence Committee's report from December 3, 2019, contained phone data obtained through subpoenas to AT&T and/or Verizon. Among these records was a twenty-five minute conversation that took place on May 10, 2019, between Giuliani and Patel. Is it 58? It was less than an hour following a call between Giuliani and Kurt Volker, and it came after Giuliani and Patel tried to phone each other for several hours. Is it 58? An unknown number contacted Giuliani for more than seventeen minutes five minutes after the call with Patel. Then, Giuliani called his associate Lev Parnas for about twelve minutes.:? Is it 58? "I was "never a back channel to President Trump on Ukraine concerns, at all, ever," Patel said in a statement he sent to CBS News on December 4, 2019, denying that he was involved in Giuliani's Ukraine back-channel and adding that his conversation with Giuliani was "personal."
**2020**: Serving as principal deputy to the director of national intelligence**
In February 2020, Patel transitioned to a position as principal deputy to Acting Director Richard Grenell at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Press accounts said that Patel was one of two Americans of Indian heritage who accompanied Trump on his official visit to the Republic of India later that month.
Nigeria, according to Patel's October 2020 assertion, has authorized a U.S. hostage rescue operation. Nevertheless, the United States was unable to verify approval. According to Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper's account, A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times, Patel "made the approval story up." Despite this, SEAL Team Six managed to free captive Philip Walton.
Director of Defense Policy and Planning (2020)
After Trump fired Mark Esper as defense secretary in November 2020, he appointed Patel chief of staff to Christopher C. Miller, who was then acting secretary of defense. When Esper declined to send troops to Washington to suppress the George Floyd protests, Patel allegedly said that Esper was betraying Trump. For three months, Patel stayed in the Pentagon.
In an article for Foreign Policy, the author linked the decision to Trump's "refusal to accept the election results." According to defense experts interviewed by Alex Ward of Vox, the appointment of Patel was "not sinister," would "not change much," and could have been part of a plan to speed up the pullout of American forces from Afghanistan. While Patel and Ezra Cohen-Watnick were "calling the shots" at the Department of Defense, an unidentified insider told Vanity Fair that Miller was only a "front man" in his role as Acting Secretary of Defense. According to another source who spoke with the magazine, Patel has more clout than anybody else in the United States administration when it came to issues of national security.
Despite being appointed to head the defense department's cooperation with the Biden administration transition team, Patel allegedly prevented some officers from assisting them after the 2020 election. Additionally, he was in favor of a departmental plan to decouple the NSA from the United States government. The Cyber Command.
In early 2021, after the 2020 US presidential election, Trump suggested Patel as a possible head of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) or the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The current director, Gina Haspel, would have had to resign if Trump had installed Patel as interim director or deputy director of the CIA. Proponents of this plan encountered strong opposition from various quarters, including Attorney General William Barr, who stated in his memoir that Patel would only become director of the FBI "over my dead body." During Trump's final weeks in office, he intended to remove CIA deputy director Vaughn Bishop and replace him with Patel; however, Haspel, supported by Pence and White House counsel Pat Cipollone, dissuaded him.
Disputes involving intelligence services
The CIA requested that the first Trump Justice Department launch a criminal inquiry into Patel's actions after years of disagreements with the FBI and CIA, according to a January 2025 CNN article. The disagreements reportedly stemmed from Patel's management of national security secrets. Claiming to have shared sensitive material regarding Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election to government officials not authorized to receive it, Patel allegedly did so in an attempt to undermine the credibility of the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling. There was no prosecution stemming from the DOJ referral, and Patel maintains that he did not mishandle sensitive materials. There is still a note in Patel's FBI security clearance file that says the CIA was referred to. In a massive leaks probe that took place during the first Trump administration, 43 people, including Patel, had their phone data secretly collected. According to Patel, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) need to concentrate only on criminal investigations and reduce its involvement in national security intelligence activities.
+ Things to do once the administration leaves office (2020–2024)
It is often believed—and Patel himself has admitted—that he is a Trump loyalist. Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns the Truth Social media platform, had Patel as a board member in April 2022. Patel has been bringing his ties to Donald Trump into "enterprises he promotes under the logotype 'K$H.'" since 2020. Patel was a co-host of a talk program on The Epoch Times, a far-right media outlet associated with Falun Gong, and an alt-right podcast guest. He also advocated many Trump conspiracy theories. Supplements that Patel claims rid the body of the harmful effects of COVID-19 vaccinations were among the branded items that he marketed.
In his 2022 picture book for kids, The Plot Against the King, Patel makes the unfounded claim that the Steele dossier was the smoking gun that sparked the investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
The partial memoir Government Gangsters, written by Patel in 2023, is critical of the "deep state." Among the sixty individuals listed by Patel as belonging to the deep state are: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Merrick Garland, Bill Barr, Robert Mueller, James Comey, Mark Esper, and Robert Hur.
In a letter sent to the National Archives on June 19, 2022, Trump designated Patel and John Solomon as "representatives for access to Presidential records of my administration." In 2022, Patel established Fight With Kash, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity, to solicit donations for "helping other people" in need, with a specific focus on uniting "America First patriots" and "helping fight the Deep State." Patel claimed to have "funded whistleblowers campaigns," which Democrats on the Republican-controlled House Judiciary weaponization subcommittee stated included former FBI employees whom the FBI had accused of endorsing "an alarming series of conspiracy theories related to the January 6 Capitol attack... and the validity of the 2020 election." While appearing on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast in December 2023, Patel agreed with Bannon's claims that, if elected in 2024, Donald Trump would be "dead serious" about seeking vengeance on his political opponents. As Patel put it:
Not only in the administration but also in the media will we track out the conspirators... We will pursue the media professionals who discredited American folk and assisted Joe Biden in manipulating the presidential election. You may expect us to pursue you. We will determine if it is a civil or criminal matter. Steve, this is exactly why they despise us; nonetheless, we are formally announcing this to all of you. That is the reason for our despotism. Because of this, we are tyrants... Just because they've accused us of things we've never committed, but we're going to utilize the Constitution to hold them accountable.
During the time that Patel made these comments, The New York Times was simultaneously reporting on "a series of plans by Mr. Trump and his allies that would upend core elements of American governance, democracy, foreign policy and the rule of law if he regained the White House." Axios reported a few days later that Patel was being considered for a top national security position in a second Trump administration.
While working for the Department of Justice in 2012, Patel allegedly made many false assertions on his involvement in the investigation of the Benghazi incident, according to a December 2024 article in The New York Times. The Times questioned present and past law enforcement officials who all agreed that Patel inflated his role in the probe and misrepresented the department's larger initiatives. Despite Patel's assertion that he was "leading the prosecution's efforts at Main Justice," his true role was that of a junior investigator assisting the investigation's counterterrorism team, which included analysts and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and prosecutors from the United States Attorney's office in Washington, D.C.
According to the Times, Patel's statements on Ahmed Abu Khattala's prosecution were likewise false. In September 2024, after an appeals court determined that Khattala's first 22-year sentence was too low, he was actually sentenced to 28 years in jail. This contradicts Patel's earlier suggestions that Khattala would be freed from prison before the 2028 election.
[2021–2022) Participation in the examination into Trump's papers
After Trump left office in 2020, he took official presidential records to his Florida residence, according to a 2021 investigation by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Despite Trump's recovery of certain records, NARA discovered that others remained missing, including potentially secret ones. Following the failure of NARA's petitions and a subpoena demanding the return of the papers, the FBI obtained a search warrant and proceeded to Trump's residence to seize them. After Trump left the White House, Patel openly claimed that he had declassified large amounts of sensitive material. After receiving a grand jury subpoena in October 2022 to inquire into the case, Patel chose not to answer any questions by claiming his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Stanley Woodward was the counsel who represented Patel in this case. The DOJ's efforts to convince a federal court to require Patel to testify were fruitless. On November 4, 2022, Patel testified following the provision of limited immunity from prosecution by justice department prosecutors.
The Kash Foundation will be a
In July 2022, the Kash Foundation became a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) entity, and Kash is both a board member and president of the organization. Based Apparel, of which Kash is a partial owner, has "K$H: Fight with Kash" merchandise available on the foundation's website. Another Kash-affiliated website, Fight with Kash, features a link to the same Based Apparel online store as Kash and the Kash Foundation. In September 2021, the Kash Patel Legal Offense Trust and Believe Media were the ones who initially registered the Fight With Kash website. Believe Media's CEO and founder happens to be a board member of the Kash Foundation.
**Proposal to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigations**
To succeed Christopher A. Wray as head of the FBI, Trump selected Patel in November 2024. On confirmation, Patel would join an exclusive group: the FBI's ninth director and its first head of Indian American descent. In making the announcement, Trump referenced Patel's work in "uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax" and his support for "truth, accountability and the Constitution." Iranian hackers began targeting Patel after his nomination and gained access to some of his correspondence. January 30, 2025 was the day of his nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A group of twenty-three former Republican officials wrote a letter just two days before Patel's confirmation hearing in the Senate, claiming that his appointment would be "a grievous mistake that would endanger the FBI’s integrity and compromise its critical mission" due to his "motivated by revenge" and "has repeatedly vowed to go after individuals on perceived enemies lists. This is a vision of the FBI as an authoritarian weapon for pursuing his and Trump’s grievances." Members of the Justice Department from four Republican administrations beginning with Nixon's were among the signatories. The letter's signatory, Ty Cobb, a former Trump White House counsel, claimed that Patel "is not qualified remotely by character or experience" to lead the FBI and described him as "somebody who is a real danger to democracy and certainly a dagger in the heart of the FBI."
Although Patel had made eight appearances on the podcast of right-wing conspiracy theorist Stew Peters, he denied knowing Peters "off the top of my head" at his confirmation hearing. He vehemently denied that his book Government Gangsters contained a "enemies list," despite the fact that it did name sixty "Members of the Executive Branch Deep State" who are characterized as "corrupt actors of the first order." Patel was questioned regarding a statement he had made before regarding the prosecution of Justice Department officials on racketeering charges "for criminally organizing the United States government to break the law to rig presidential elections." He avoided acknowledging the statement, claiming it was not given in its entirety. The comments he made on the Steve Bannon show in December 2023 about targeting government and media people went unacknowledged as well. He claimed he did not invent the meme depicting him slashing his political opponents with a chainsaw, an image he had posted on social media. He wanted to detach himself from the meme. Democratic committee members, according to Patel, were spreading "false accusations and grotesque mischaracterizations" about him.
Democrats' senior committeeman, Dick Durbin, questioned Patel about his marketing of the album "And Justice for All," which featured choral music from the J6 choir—a group of inmates who had participated in the January 6th, US Capitol assault riots—and which Patel had co-produced, marketed, and distributed. Patel has used the term "political prisoners" to characterize the inmates. "What was the FBI doing planning January 6th for a year?" was the title of an episode of Patel's podcast. Patel denied making the assertion when Durbin questioned him about his claim that the FBI had plans to hold a meeting on January 6.
Charles Grassley, leader of the committee, said on social media, "These latest allegations... don't hold a candle to Patel's character + credibility."
By a party-line vote of 12 to 10, the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended Kash Patel's nomination to head the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) on February 13, 2025.
To put Patel's candidacy up for a full vote, the Senate voted 48-45 along party lines on February 18, 2025.
The Senate approved his nomination by a vote of 51 to 49 on February 20, 2025. The majority of senators cast their ballots in agreement, with the exception of two Republicans, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who had previously voted against Patel.
Committee in the Senate alleges possible perjury
While Patel's confirmation was being considered, Durbin asked the Justice Department inspector general to examine claims that "highly credible information from multiple sources" indicated Patel was secretly ordering the removal of FBI officers. At one point during the hearing, Durbin asked Patel if he was aware of any plans or discussions to punish FBI agents or personnel associated with Trump investigations in any way, including termination. Patel testified that he didn't "know what's going on right now over there," prompting Durbin to suggest that Patel may have committed perjury. That was Patel's response:
Senator, I pledge to you and your colleagues that I will respect the FBI's internal review process, even if I am unaware of the current situation there.
According to Durbin, who cited testimony from many individuals, Patel plotted the ouster of certain FBI personnel with Trump's deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove. In a letter to the inspector general of the United States, Stephen Miller, acting at the direction of Mr. Patel, had instructed DOJ leadership two days earlier to fire a specific list of officials and expedite their dismissal, according to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary website regarding Patel's remarks on the day of the hearing regarding respecting the FBI's internal review process and being unaware of FBI operations. Senator Durbin expressed his disapproval of a nominee who does not currently hold any government position, let alone one at the FBI, taking personal, unwarranted, and possibly unlawful action against senior career FBI leadership and other committed, nonpartisan law enforcement officials in a letter to the Department of Justice.
Committee receives disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
A Wilmington, Delaware entity named Trishul had Qatar as a customer when Patel filed documents declaring his affiliation with the firm. The public did not learn about this until two days following the Senate committee meeting. It consulted with Qatar on matters of defense, intelligence, and national security until November 2024. While serving as national security advisor for Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2024, Patel was also a consultant to Qatar. Not registering as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act has put him under suspicion, despite his consultancy firm reporting $2,114,251 in commercial income. He promised he would stay involved with Trishul, but if Patel becomes FBI director, Trishul would stay inactive. Included in the United States government is the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). The Justice Department, headed by Attorney General Pam Bondi. In the past, Bondi lobbied on behalf of Qatar.
The Cayman Islands-based parent firm of the Chinese online discount retailer Shein, Elite Depot Ltd., paid Patel between $1 million and $5 million in restricted stock that has not yet vested. With future legal titling to Patel as restricted stock, ownership will eventually vest in the receiver. Accrual of $1–$5 million in consulting fees as unvested shares was not reported in the disclosure forms. Shares will vest every three months until November 1, 2025. The original vesting date was February 1, 2025.
U.S. President Donald Trump's media and technology company, Trump Media & Technology Group, runs the Truth Social social media platform, and Patel received 25,946 restricted shares in the company after filing his initial financial disclosure or ethics agreement. The shares were valued at more than $800,000 when reported. At the social media firm, Patel serves on the board of directors. Two days before the Senate hearing, on January 28, 2025, Patel got the shares. As of right now, the United States government does not have access to Patel's updated financial statements. The Government Ethics Office.
Roughly $250,000 (representing 25% of the restricted shares in Trump Media as of the reporting date) is available right away, with the rest of the restricted stock becoming available in installments starting in March 2025 and continuing through March 2027. According to Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert and professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, Patel has a financial incentive to refrain from taking actions that would harm the value of Trump Media, which is relevant to the idea of him holding on to the restricted shares while serving as director of the FBI. Investigations would fall within this category.
Held the position of director of the federal bureau of investigation from 2025 till the present.
Employment Status
In 2025, on February 21, Patel took the oath of office as the ninth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Chris Wray had resigned on January 19, the day before Trump's second inauguration, so Patel succeeded him. He made history as the first Indian American and Hindu American to head the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) upon his appointment.
Encouraging the belief in secret plots
Some have accused Patel of being a conspiracy theorist due to his promotion of several such notions. A few of the conspiracy theories put out by Patel include the deep state idea, some unfounded assertions regarding the 2020 election, QAnon, COVID-19 vaccinations, and the assertion that the FBI was behind the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, with plans hatched up to a year in advance. Additionally, he asserted that Democrats were aware of the strike beforehand. Ray Epps, an ardent Trump supporter and Oath Keeper, was allegedly an undercover FBI agent who incited protesters to storm the Capitol, according to Patel's conspiracy theory.
Patel has been an outspoken supporter of the QAnon idea of conspiracies. Patel advertised an account on Truth Social going by the name @Q, which disseminated conspiracy-related material. Media Matters reports that Patel went on many QAnon programs and uploaded a picture with a burning Q on it to encourage QAnon members to become Truth Social members. According to Patel, Truth Social is attempting to include QAnon "into our overall messaging scheme to capture audiences" in 2022, and the leader of the QAnon movement "should get credit for all the things he has accomplished." Patel has advocated the QAnon movement on at least twelve podcasts and has made more than fifty appearances on far-right podcasts that promote conspiracy theories, including Stew Peters's.
A tenth of Patel's children's book "King Donald" has the QAnon slogan "WWG1WGA" ("where we go one, we go all"). Truth Social has also seen his promotion of the #WWG1WGA hashtag. While on Truth Social, Patel also advocated for a supplement that he claimed may counteract the negative effects of the COVID-19 vaccination.
President Trump lauded Patel's 2023 book Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, which grew out of his belief in a deep state in America.
The ReAwaken America Tour has included Patel as a featured speaker. Speaking engagements on the ReAwaken America Tour include topics related to conspiracy theories.
In 2024, Patel received $25,000 for his appearance in a six-part film series titled "All the President's Men: The Conspiracy Against Trump." The series was produced by a company owned by Igor Lopatonok, a dual U.S. and Russian citizen, who had a history of making films that promoted narratives favorable to the Russian government and alleged dark web conspiracies. In November 2024, the Tucker Carlson media platform broadcast a series starring Patel, who played the role of a purported victim of the deep state.
An anonymous Harvard University scholar who worked with Patel on international security issues said in November 2024 that Patel "is a conspiracy theorist even by the standards of MAGA world."
=> Lawsuits =>
Politico published what Patel viewed as libelous pieces about him from October 23, 2019, to November 8, 2019. Patel filed a lawsuit against Politico in the Virginia Circuit Court for the County of Henrico on November 18th of that year. March 15, 2022 was the date of the non-suit ruling.
The Virginia Court of Appeals rendered its decision in the case Kashyap Patel v. CNN on January 21, 2025. Cable News Network (CNN) allegedly slandered Patel in many news reports, including one that implied Trump was using Patel as a go-between with the Ukrainian government during the events leading up to the first impeachment of Trump. In accordance with Virginia law, CNN was able to demand that the plaintiff produce papers relevant to their claim (a motion for crave Oyer). The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report (Ukraine Report) and the Nunes memo were among the papers produced. CNN was aware that both Patel and the Ukraine Report had refuted the assertion, but that Patel had fought the same charges. In this case, the court found that "Patel's bare conclusory allegation that CNN acted with actual malice was without factual support and insufficient to withstand demurrer." A demurrer is a document that objections to a filed pleading by the opposing party.
Patel is an ice hockey player and aficionado who splits his time between Nevada and the nation's capital. Patel reportedly consented to take part in a "bachelor auction" of "very handsome lawyers" in 2014 to raise money for the social services group Switchboard of Miami, as reported on the legal website Above the Law. He decided he didn't want to participate in the auction after realizing his Florida Bar status wasn't valid. Podcasts presented by Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, and others have included Patel as a frequent guest.