America’s far right celebrates new leadership at the FBI

In one sentence, there was celebration over Kash Patel’s confirmation as the new FBI director, and a bit of casual racism on the side. “I really like Kash, he’s very based [supposedly authentic and politically incorrect, in alt-right online slang]. I’d buy curry from him any day,” wrote one user on a neo-Nazi Telegram account with thousands of followers a few days ago.

It is a simple example of the general reaction by the American far right to the new leadership of the premier federal law enforcement agency. While these groups are optimistic about no longer being considered a priority threat to the nation and, therefore, no longer a priority for investigations by the most important security agency in the country, their supremacist ideology is not concealed either, and there has been mockery and discomfort about Patel’s Indian roots.

The former federal defender and anti-terrorist prosecutor was confirmed by the slim Republican majority in the Senate — 51 to 49 votes — last Thursday, a few weeks after hearings in which he refused to assure that he would not persecute political adversaries, despite swearing to “depoliticize” the agency. And this week Patel named Dan Bongino, a former New York police officer, Secret Service agent and host of an ultraconservative and Trumpist podcast as his new deputy director, in charge of the daily operations of the agency. In the opposition, alarms about his lack of experience and clearly political appointment have sounded loudly, but in vain. Since then, the channels and groups of the so-called “alt-right” and far right have been very active, with messages celebrating the appointment and showing a belief that they will now be less targeted by FBI operations against extremist groups.

On another Telegram channel run by former leaders of the dismantled neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, the position is made clear. “If Kash Patel actually shuts down FBI spyware and the use of agents/informants to subvert political movements through gayops [a conspiracy executed by people connecting via social media] that’s fine with us,” one message reads, before concluding somewhat cautiously: “It may not happen, but it would be nice if it did.”

Wendy Via, president and founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), which monitors extremism movements at national and transnational levels, underscores the reaction of the Proud Boys, one of the main ethnonationalist groups that led the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “The vast majority, particularly the Proud Boys, are very happy because Patel has been their defender in the case of January 6 from the beginning. So, of course, they want him there. They want justice, their justice: pardons for themselves and prosecutors fired.”

The first steps in this direction have already been taken. On his first day in office, Donald Trump pardoned some 1,500 people convicted of storming the Capitol. A few days later, the Justice Department, under the leadership of Pam Bondi, to whom the FBI reports, gave the order to collect the names of federal police personnel who participated in the investigation of the Capitol assault. The Justice Department also informed the FBI leadership last week of the dismissal of at least eight senior officials.

“They are also working to pardon defendants for any other crimes. For example, if when arresting someone they found that they had illegal weapons in their home and those crimes were added to the charges, they are now trying to remove them. They are erasing anything related to the January 6 investigation,” adds Via, noting the promises that Patel made before being appointed by Trump to head the FBI.

Speaking on Steve Bannon’s podcast, Patel said that “we will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.” Patel has also promised to close down the agency’s headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, and reopen it the next day as a “deep state museum,” while moving the 7,000 employees who work there across the country.

Patel’s close relationship with QAnon, the far-right conspiracy movement, is also evidence that extremists’ glee at his appointment is not unfounded. “We try to incorporate it into our overall messaging scheme to capture audiences,” he said about QAnon on a June 2022 episode of the Patriot Party News show, while serving as director at the Trump Media & Technology Group. Patel praised the movement’s supposed insight, and his personal posts on Truth Social actively promote Q-affiliated accounts.

All told, there is a sense that white supremacist and far-right groups are confident they can fly under the radar in this new law enforcement environment, says Joshua Fisher Birch, an expert on neo-Nazi groups at the Counter Extremism Project. “If the likelihood of being investigated is diminished by shifting federal priorities, these groups may be more willing to take new risks. Some groups may see an advantage in tying their messaging to the administration in an effort to recruit people,” he adds.

However, Fisher Birch notes, the racism of some people in this sector makes it impossible for them to accept Patel, and there has been a proliferation of messages of ridicule and even outrage. “It should also be noted that, regardless of who runs the FBI, certain parts of the far right will remain hostile to him.” In any case, the bottom line is that “the far right wants a weakened FBI that is not focused on its own activities.”

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