What Is Kash Patel's Net Worth?
Kash Patel is an American lawyer and author who has a net worth of $800 thousand. Kash Patel formerly worked at the U.S. Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor. During Donald Trump's first term as president, Patel served as the Chief of Staff to Christopher C. Miller, the Acting Secretary of Defense, and was the senior advisor to Richard Grenell, the Acting Director of National Intelligence.
In November 2024, Kash was nominated as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for Trump's second term. He has worked for the House Select Committee on Intelligence as senior counsel on counterterrorism and for the U.S. National Security Council as Senior Director of the Counterterrorism Directorate, and during his time as a senior aide to the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Devin Nunes, Patel played an instrumental role in Republican opposition to investigations on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
After leaving government service, Kash became known for promoting various controversial theories and selling branded "K$H" merchandise. He established the Kash Foundation to "support educational and legal efforts needed to facilitate government transparency with the goal of creating a healthier relationship between the US federal government and American citizens." Patel is the author of the 2023 book "Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy " and the children's book series "The Plot Against the King."
Salary
As a board member of Trump Media & Technology Group, Kash earns a salary of $120,000 per year. He also earned $300,000 over roughly a year from a Trump PAC to serve as a national security advisor to Donald Trump and $145,000 from the campaign of Matt Gaetz for serving as a "fundraising consultant."
Early Life
Kash Patel was born Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel on February 25, 1980, in Garden City, New York. He is the son of Indian Gujarati immigrant parents who moved to Canada from Uganda in the early '70s. They later relocated to the United States, and Patel's father began working at an aviation firm as a financial officer. Kash grew up in a Hindu household, and his father's eight siblings lived with Patel and his parents. Kash attended Long Island's Garden City High School, and after graduation, he enrolled at the University of Richmond, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in criminal justice and history in 2002. He later attended University College London, England, receiving a certificate in international law in 2004. The following year, Patel earned a Juris Doctor from New York's Pace University School of Law.
Career
Kash moved to Florida after graduating from law school, and in April 2006, he was admitted to the Florida Bar. For the next eight years, he worked as a public defender, starting out in the Miami-Dade County public defender's office before becoming a federal public defender. Patel represented clients with felony charges such as murder and international drug trafficking. In 2014, the United States Department of Justice National Security Division hired him as a trial attorney, and there, he was a legal liaison to the Joint Special Operations Command. Three years later, Kash began working at the House Intelligence Committee as senior counsel on counterterrorism. That year, he also became the senior committee aide to Devin Nunes, the House Intelligence Committee chair, and played an important role in the Republican party's opposition to investigations into Russian interference in the previous year's election. "The New York Times" reported that Patel was the 2018 Nunes memo's primary author. The Nunes memo alleged "FBI misconduct in its application for a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) for electronic surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page." Several individuals denied the publication's claim. In January 2019, after Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives, Kash spent a month at the House Reform and Oversight Committee as senior counsel.
In February 2019, Patel was hired to work for the National Security Council (NSC) during the Trump administration, and his job was in the International Organizations and Alliances directorate. A few months later, a new position was created for him, Senior Director of the Counterterrorism Directorate.
(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The Wall Street Journal reported that Kash secretly traveled to Damascus in early 2020 for the purpose of negotiating the release of two U.S. citizens who were being held by Syria's government. In February 2020, Patel became a principal deputy to Richard Grenell, the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Later that month, he accompanied Trump to the Republic of India.
In October 2020, Kash reportedly provided incorrect information regarding Nigeria giving permission for a U.S. hostage rescue. According to Patel, the U.S. had received clearance for the rescue operation, but the U.S. wasn't actually able to confirm clearance. In his book "A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times," Mark T. Esper wrote that Kash "made the approval story up." In November 2020, Patel was named chief of staff to Christopher C. Miller, the Acting Secretary of Defense, after Trump fired Esper. NBC reported that after the 2020 election, Kash blocked Department of Defense officials from assisting with the Biden administration transition. In November 2024, Trump nominated Patel as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Personal Life
Kash lives in Washington, D.C. and Nevada, and he enjoys playing ice hockey. In November 2019, he sued Politico over articles that he considered defamatory, but in March 2022, his case was ruled a non-suit. In January 2025, the Court of Appeals of Virginia decided the case Kashyap Patel v. CNN after Kash sued CNN for slander over several news stories including one claiming that he was involved with Donald Trump's efforts to "coerce Ukraine into announcing an investigation into Vice President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden" during his first presidential term. CNN presented the Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report and other documents to the court, which ended up ruling that "Patel's bare conclusory allegation that CNN acted with actual malice was without factual support and insufficient to withstand demurrer."
Kash is known for promoting several controversial theories. He wrote about his views on the deep state in his book "Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy," which was published in 2023.
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