What's Kash Patel's net worth?

Given that he did not serve as either an agent with the agency, a federal judge or a U.S. Attorney before taking the position, FBI Director Kash Patel's biography already sets him apart from past holders of the office. And his selection of far-right media figure Dan Bongino as the agency's deputy director only highlighted his contrast with the more sober, career-oriented men who preceded him.

Patel's ascent to the top of the nation's federal law enforcement apparatus began when he made a hard-right turn after serving as lead counsel on the House Intelligence Committee under then-Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) in 2017. This experience introduced him to the burgeoning world of far-right podcasters, influencers and other figures who maintained unflagging loyalty to and support for President Trump during the first-term scandals and investigations that his allies would eventually subsume under the label of the "deep state."

Before Patel's detour into the MAGA universe, his career would not have raised eyebrows. He served first as a public defender in Miami before taking a job as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice. Since his migration to the right, however, he has not only risen rapidly to the top of the MAGA hierarchy, but also carved out a lucrative career for himself as a right-wing influencer. Patel "parlayed proximity to Trump and a zeal for self-promotion into consulting contracts, corporate board seats and a role as a sought-after MAGA commentator." This ultimately "helped swell his net worth to as much as $15 million," said The Associated Press. Other analyses have come to different conclusions: Patel's net worth is "more than $5.9 million," said Business Insider, in an analysis based on his 2024 financial disclosure.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

From public defender to MAGA stalwart

Patel grew up on Long Island and attended the University of Richmond for his BA in criminal justice and history before obtaining his law degree from Pace University in 2005. His first job out of law school was as a local public defender in Miami, Florida. Colleagues in Miami remember him as "good at face-to-face interactions and building rapport with judges, but uninterested in the paperwork and legal arguments that came with the job," said CNN. He later became a federal public defender in the Southern District of Florida, where he "developed a deep animosity toward the Justice Department prosecutors he found himself up against," said The New York Times. "Pay for public defenders" in 2010 was "a median of $47,500 for entry-level public defenders and increasing to about $76,000 for those with 11 to 15 years of experience," said the National Association For Law Placement.

In 2014, Patel joined the Department of Justice as an attorney whose job was "helping prosecute terror suspects at home and abroad," said Vanity Fair. At the Department of Justice, Patel carved out "a satisfactory, if unremarkable, legal career," said CNN. His income as a lawyer with the Department of Justice likely did not make him rich. The cost of living in the Washington, D.C., area, after all, is "42% higher than the national average," said Redfin.

In 2017, Patel took a job as the lead counsel for the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee, where he "emerged as a leading critic of the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into the Trump campaign's alleged links to Russia," said The Washington Post. Patel's "time as a MAGA acolyte began when he was a congressional aide helping to hamper the Russia investigation," said MSNBC. President Trump was so pleased with his performance that he "demanded that his staffers find Patel a White House job on the National Security Council." On the National Security Council, he was the senior director for counter-terrorism, and "developed a reputation for going around the usual chain of command at the White House because he had developed "a direct line" to Trump," said Time. In 2020, he became the senior advisor to Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell before becoming chief of staff for Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller in November 2020.

Cashing in on his proximity to Donald Trump

In the past, officials from the party ousted from the White House have parked themselves in think tanks, which often "serve as governments-in-waiting for the party out of power, providing professional perches for former officials" as they prepare for their party's next election victory, said National Affairs. Patel, while he accepted a position as a Senior Fellow at the Center For American Security at the America First Policy Institute in October 2024, fashioned a multi-faceted post-government career for himself during the Biden administration, which was largely outside of the think tank world and seems to be the source of his small fortune.

His list of income sources, according to the financial disclosure form he filed when he was nominated to lead the FBI, is extensive and complicated. He founded a company, Trishul LLC, which is a "national security, defense and intelligence consulting business," whose clients included the "Embassy of Qatar and the Trump-founded leadership PAC, Save America," as well as Trump Media & Technology group, said Investopedia. His financial disclosure states that his income from Trishul was $2.1 million in 2024.

Beginning in 2022, he wrote a trilogy of Trump-themed children's books, including "The Plot Against the King 3: The Return of the King." Those books were "written for an audience of one: King Donald Trump," said The Guardian. They earned him as much as $50,000 each in 2024 according to his financial disclosure, as well as up to $1 million in royalties from his book "Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth and the Battle for Our Democracy." He also earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2024 alone as a contributor to right-wing media outlets like The Epoch Times and Real America's Voice News.

Patel also "served as a board member of Trump Media and Technology Group," where he was paid "$120,000 annually from the company as a consultant," in addition to earning "$544,000 for his work for Trump's campaign," said Forbes. He holds stock in a company called Elite Depot, which "owns the controversial Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein" that are "worth between $1 million and $5 million." He also reported countless other smaller sources of income, including "doing more than $5,000 worth of consulting work for CSGM, a branch of the Czech-owned foreign arms conglomerate The Czechoslovak Group." Patel's net worth also includes his investment portfolio, including "up to $250,000 in chip-designer NVIDIA, up to $250,000 in Bitcoin mining company Core Scientific and up to $115,000 in a Bitcoin ETF," said ABC News.

Patel's extensive crypto holdings and involvement with the Trump Media and Technology Group are a potential source of ethics concerns. Shortly after his Senate confirmation hearings concluded, he "was given 25,946 restricted shares" in President Trump's media conglomerate, "which were then worth $779,000," said Business Insider. Meanwhile, Patel has been the focus of controversy over whether he is spending more time at his home in Las Vegas than he is working at FBI headquarters. "Former FBI counter-intelligence chief Frank Figliuzzi alleged on MSNBC’s Morning Joe" in May 2025 that Patel is rarely seen at the office, "raising questions about Patel's engagement in day-to-day operations," said MSN.

As President Trump's trade war with China rattled markets beginning with his "Liberation Day" tariff announcements, Patel continued to hold his stock in the Chinese-owned Elite Depot. "Even as he leads an FBI that has aggressively sounded the alarm about the danger China poses to the U.S," Patel claimed that "there was only a 'remote' chance his new job would involve the company," said Fortune. Some observers worry that he could "gain access to non-public information that might influence his future financial decisions regarding the stock," said The Economic Times.