Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff to President-elect Donald Trump, announced Friday that former Rep. Mike Rogers is no longer being considered for the role of FBI director.
Rogers, 61, had been rumored as a contender for the position, but Scavino said Trump dismissed the idea when questioned about the former Michigan Republican's candidacy.
"Just spoke to President Trump regarding Mike Rogers going to the FBI. It's not happening — In his own words, 'I have never even given it a thought.' Not happening," Scavino wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Kash Patel, a former aide to President-elect Trump, was also a contender for the leadership role of the FBI. Ex-FBI Director Andrew McCabe said Thursday that the bureau's stability would be at risk if Patel was nominated.
Patel has maintained his loyalty to the president-elect, having served as a senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence and as chief of staff to former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller during Trump's first term. However, he has never held a direct position within the FBI.
"No part of the FBI's mission is safe with Kash Patel in any position of leadership in the FBI, and certainly not in the Deputy Director's job," McCabe told CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Thursday evening, adding, "The scope of authority is enormous."
"If you enter into that position with nothing more than a desire to disrupt and destroy the organization, there is a lot of damage someone like Kash Patel could do," he said.
Patel has maintained his loyalty to the president-elect, having served as a senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence and as chief of staff to former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller during Trump's first term. However, he has never held a direct position within the FBI.
Meanwhile, former FBI Special Agent Daniel Brunner also said Patel's leadership would do "massive damage" to the agency.
"Putting someone like Kash Patel in the position of director of the FBI is, I believe, extremely, extremely dangerous because ... his resume isn't traditional," Brunner said Sunday on CNN.
