On Sunday evening, president-elect Donald Trump fired off a post on Truth Social asking, presumably rhetorically, whether President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter would apply to “the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years.”
Trump routinely invoked the “J-6 Hostages”—rioters who participated in the Capitol insurrection four years ago—throughout his presidential campaign, and vowed to free them if elected.
But on Sunday night, these words, which were Trump’s first mention of the January 6 prisoners since the election, carried particular significance. Trump had just announced that he plans to nominate staunch loyalist and January 6 sympathizer Kash Patel to run the FBI. (Current FBI director Christopher Wray’s term ends in 2027; whether Trump intends to fire him or expects him to resign isn’t clear.) Patel, a former federal prosecutor who worked in a variety of national security roles during Trump’s first term, is an author of the children’s book series “The Plot Against the King,” which is about Trump’s “Deep State” enemies, and sells pro-Trump merchandise under the brand name K$H.
“I think January 6 individuals, those in jail, those in the legal pipeline, will be ecstatic over this,” says Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman from Virginia who served as an adviser to the Select Committee investigating the events of January 6. “They already bought into criminal activity on January 6, now they have someone who validates it, even excuses it. I think it makes them very happy.”
Patel, who was chief of staff to acting defense secretary Christopher Miller on January 6, 2021, has pushed the baseless “fedsurrection” conspiracy theory, which claims that undercover FBI agents instigated the Capitol riot with the goal of smearing the MAGA movement.
Patel helped produce “Justice for All,” a single that features the “J6 Prison Choir” singing the national anthem (a solemn nightly tradition for imprisoned rioters), mixed with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The song became a mainstay of Trump’s campaign rallies. Patel has also proposed a “full-fledged investigation” into the January 6 Select Committee. He has even helped January 6ers via his nonprofit the Kash Foundation, which provides, among other things, legal defense funds to help “defamed American citizens.” Patel has also flirted with QAnon, defending its slogan “WWG1WGA” (where we go one, we go all), praising QAnon supporters, and even appearing on the high-profile QAnon podcast X22 Report.
Riggleman believes that Patel is Trump’s most dangerous selection to lead a major agency, on account of his blind loyalty to the former president and his public displays of interest in conspiracy theories. “I think it’s his worst pick, even worse than Matt Gaetz,” he says. “Kash Patel is simply a foot soldier for Trump.”
Original Author: Tess Owen | Source: Wired
