Kash Patel, Indian-American, named Chief of Staff to Acting US Defence Secretary

According to the news shared by Pentagon on November 10, 2020, Kash Patel, an Indian-American has been named Chief of Staff to the acting US Defence Secretary. He was named for the position by Acting US Defence Secretary, Chris Miller.

The new appointment of Kash Patel from the Pentagon has come a day after President Donald Trump fired Defence Secretary Mark Esper and appointed Chris Miller, National Counter-Terrorism Center Director, as the Acting United States Defence Secretary. Miller took over the responsibilities and functions of his new role on November 9, 2020.

Kash Patel has replaced Jen Stewart who resigned from his position. Acting Under Secretary of Defence for Intelligence and Security Joseph Kernan and Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, Dr. James Anderson has also submitted their letters of resignation.

Kash Patel: Highlights of political career 

• After finishing law school in New York, he went to Florida where he worked as a State Public Defender for four years and then as Federal Public Defender for another four years.

• Kash Patel moved to Washington DC from Florida as a Terrorism Prosecutor at the Department of Justice. He worked as an International terrorism prosecutor for three and a half years during which he worked on cases all over the world, like in the US, East Africa as well as Kenya, and Uganda.

• While still employed by the Justice Department, he joined Special Operations Command at the Department of Defence as a civilian.

• At the Pentagon, he also sat as a lawyer of the Department of Justice with Special Forces people. He also worked as inter-agency collaborative targeting operations globally.

• After a year in this lucrative position, Chairman of the House Permanent Select on Intelligence Committee, Congressman David Nunes, pulled him as a senior counsel on counter-terrorism.

• In June 2019, he was appointed as a Counterterrorism Directorate of the National Security Council’s Senior Director in White House.

Personal Background:

Kashyap Pramod Patel, known as Kash Patel is 39 and was born in New York but has his roots in Gujarat. However, his parents are from East Africa, father from Uganda, and mother from Tanzania. They came to the United States from Canada in 1970 and moved to Queens in New York.

Kash Patel did his schooling in New York and college in Richmond, Virginia. He attended law school in New York after which he moved to Florida to work as a State Public Defender.