Inside Trump’s dramatic potential plan to shake up the FBI

CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump is considering shake up the management at the FBI by firing the director and installing an experienced ex-agent and MAGA loyalist in the top two roles.

Trump has planned for months to fire Christopher Wray if elected, but has struggled in recent days to find a compromise to choose a new director who can carry out his agenda while also being confirmed by the Senate. That concern only increased after it became clear that his first pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, faced a confirmation battle before withdrawing his name.

With that context in mind, Trump has considered one potential option: appointing Mike Rogers, a former FBI special agent and ex-Michigan congressman who just lost a Senate race, as FBI director while putting Kash Patel, a controversial MAGA- loyalis, in as deputy FBI director according to several people familiar with Trump’s thinking.

The plan could please Senate Republicans worried about Trump’s plans to disrupt the FBI — while reassuring the MAGA circuit, which has been frustrated by why more of its allies have not been placed in top positions, sources told CNN.

Former Trump FBI deputy director and senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe of CNN said Thursday that Rogers would be a “completely reasonable, logical selection” to nominate to lead the agency, pointing to his knowledge of the intelligence community and his experience at the FBI. But McCabe cautioned against empowering Patel, saying on CNN’s “The Source” that “no part of the FBI’s mission is safe with Kash Patel in any leadership position in the FBI. And certainly not in the deputy director’s job.”

“It’s inconceivable to me that an outsider with no experience in the organization, no knowledge of the work and the scope of authority involved there could perform adequately,” said McCabe, who Trump fired from his position hours before his 2018 retirement.

As his advisers know best, nothing is final with Trump until it is posted in his own words on Truth Social.

Trump has interviewed several candidates at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, multiple sources told CNN. Some names have dropped out of contention only to be quickly thrown back in, and Trump has fielded calls from old friends on the matter.

CNN has reached out to Trump’s transition team and the FBI for comment.

News of Patel’s consideration for the deputy role will follow CNN reported this earlier this week that Trump was weighing a push from right-wing allies to appoint him to the top post at the agency — with multiple sources familiar with the Trump transition process expressing deep concern about the possibility.

Sources previously said Patel had lobbied for the FBI director post, where he would be well-positioned to try to investigate Trump’s political enemies, declassify sensitive information and purge career officials.

Patel, who rose to prominence in the president-elect’s orbit during his first term, was floated as a potential replacement when Trump considered firing then-CIA Director Gina Haspel after the 2020 election. He also briefly considered installing Patel as deputy director for the FBI in the final weeks of his first administration.

The job of deputy FBI director is a career position — not a politically appointed role — and then-Attorney General William Barr helped talk Trump out of putting Patel in the office at the time.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Sara Murray, Zachary Cohen, Evan Perez, Pamela Brown and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.