Kash Patel
Kash Patel (photo, left) is one of the more squalid characters in the Trump stolen secret documents saga.
He’s the guy who claimed Trump wouldn’t commit a crime if he compromised national security secrets (nuclear weapons, names of spies, etc.) because, “He can literally stand over a set documents and say these are now declassified.” (Experts dispute that.)
He should know better, having served “as a trial attorney in the … Department of Justice National Security Division,” been “embedded with a special mission unit at a ‘secure facility’,” received a commendation from the Central Intelligence Agency,” and “appointed senior counsel on counterterrorism at the House Select Committee on Intelligence.” (Quoted from Wikipedia here.)
Of course he does. He says this garbage because he’s a political hack and party operative, and a Trumper to the core. All of which is well and good. This is a free country, and he can do that for a living if he wants to.
But it’s fun to watch him squirm. Patel now is beside himself because “his name appears in the heavily redacted affidavit released Friday supporting the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.” I don’t think that’s because he was a cooperating witness; more likely it’s there because he’s a target of investigation. As a former federal prosecutor told MSNBC on Friday, he “really needs to be getting a lawyer.” (See story here.)
After squawking BROWN LIVES MATTER!, Patel claimed “his life is now in danger” (see announcement at right; click on image to enlarge). From who? His fellow Trumpers? Is he afraid they’ll assume he’s a stool pigeon, and run him down in his driveway?
He claims he’s getting death threats, but I won’t believe that without proof, just as a court will want to see proof Trump declassified those documents if anybody gets prosecuted for this.
(Actually, that won’t help, because making off with government property is a crime in itself regardless of whether it’s classified or not.)
A couple more articles about this tempest in a teapot are here (Daily Beast, which offers details on how Patel is turning his slice of Trumpism into a cash machine), and here (Newsweek, which describes Patel’s career as a children’s author, I’m not kidding).
These days nearly all political violence and threats of physical retaliation emanate from the MAGA mob, so I don’t think Patel has much to worry about — unless he is a rat. Which might be plausible to some folks. As Patel seems to be selling everything else these days, from books to t-shirts, his fellow Trumpers might suspect his loyalty and allegiance is for sale, too.
This is not to be wished for. Let me emphasize, again, that I’m against political violence in any form, by anyone, against anyone. I’m also dead-set against using cars as weapons, and even running over people accidentally. What I want is for everyone to drive safely. What my headline asks is, if he does become a victim of a car attack (a tactic rightwingers prefer to drive-by shootings), will anyone miss him?
Wikipedia biographies typically include a section labeled “Personal Life.” The entry for Patel’s personal life reads as follows: “Patel resides in the District of Columbia. He plays ice hockey. In 2014, he agreed to participate in a bachelor auction of what Above the Law described as ‘very handsome lawyers’ to benefit Switchboard of Miami, but he withdrew from the auction after a blogger noted his Florida law license was out of date.” That’s it, the entire entry, see for yourself here.
No family. Everything considered, it’s not really surprising he’d sell himself, too; or that he was kicked out of that bachelor auction because he wasn’t a lawyer anymore. The point here is that he doesn’t have a wife and kids. Even gutter crawlers usually have families and are loved by someone.
Apparently not him.