'Curious if I'm on that list?': Kash Patel's potential targets fear his tenure as FBI director

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

43% : Less than a day after Trump named Kash Patel as his choice for FBI director, a former federal law enforcement official asked me a question: "curious if I'm on that list?"He was referring to a list of roughly 60 people who Patel had said were members of the "deep state" in a memoir last year, "Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth and the Battle for Our Democracy.
41% : "The dozen current and former officials who have spoken to NBC News said that the various investigations of Trump were fueled by his statements or actions and that they were all conducted properly.
40% : "In addition to his memoir, Patel has written three children's books in which he appears to portray himself as a truth-seeking wizard -- "Kash the Distinguished Discoverer" -- who uncovers plots against a character named "King Donald," who appears to be Trump.
38% : The choice of Patel, who has used claims of "deep state" conspiracies against Trump to fuel his rise in Trumpworld and apparently gain the president-elect's trust, signaled to current and former officials, as well as many observers, that Trump's campaign trail talk about seeking vengeance was more than just that.
37% : They said they expected juries to throw them out as well -- though they do worry about the impact protracted federal investigations could have on their lives and finances.
32% : The announcement came ten days after Trump said in an interview with NBC News that members of the Jan. 6 committee were "political thugs and, you know, creeps," and that, "for what they did, honestly, they should go to jail.
31% : He said that Trump will make clear what he wants Bondi and Patel to do and then push them out if they don't do it.
30% : On Wednesday, those fears deepened when the head of a Republican-controlled House subcommittee formally requested that the FBI criminally investigate former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., for her work on the House committee that investigated Trump's actions before and during the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. capitol.
30% : In Patel's third children's book, "The Plot Against the King 3: The Return of the King," the Dragon of Jalapenos, an apparent reference to the Department of Justice -- indeed the dragon is sometimes just referred to as "DOJ" -- is deceived by the "Shifty" Knight into believing that Trump is an enemy.
29% : "Apparently, it just means anybody who doesn't do the will of Donald Trump.
27% : All of them said they were not part of the "deep state" and were not part of any secret effort to undermine Trump or any other president.
27% : "When I was deputy attorney general, President Trump regularly expressed his opinion about who should be fired or prosecuted," Rosenstein said.
26% : They say the criminal investigations into whether Trump cooperated with Russia and paid hush money during the 2016 election, tried to reverse the results of the 2020 election and declined to return classified documents after leaving office were all meritless.Alex Pfeiffer, a Trump transition spokesman, said that Patel would end politically motivated criminal investigations, not launch them.
24% : Critics say that Patel does not have managerial experience to run the FBI and that his rise has been primarily fueled by his willingness to spread unproven conspiracy theories that paint Trump as the victim of plots engineered by Democrats.
22% : In "Government Gangsters," he describes the "Deep State" as a corrupt cabal of Republican and Democrats, elected officials and civil servants, and senior FBI, DOJ and Pentagon officials who he says have committed crimes against Trump.
20% : Patel and other pro-Trump Republicans say that Democrats, along with DOJ and FBI officials, have weaponized law enforcement agencies against Trump.
10% : They said Patel could "launch an investigation just to make our lives miserable," and added that they believe Trump and Patel are trying to send a message: "If you try to hold Trump accountable for his bad behavior, you're going to face retribution.
8% : While he was working for former Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., Patel's standing with Trump and Trump loyalists soared after he wrote a memo accusing FBI officials of political bias and abuse of power during their investigation of possible collusion between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
1% : "Cheney dismissed the calls for her to be criminally investigated in a post on Bluesky and said Trump and his allies were fabricating "lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did...

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