Briefly: The Short List

Right. If this wasn’t the Short List I couldn’t do it briefly. Whose Short List? Supposedly it’s Kash Patel’s target list, culled from his book (Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy). Of course, the reality is that the FBI can’t just target people on its own—it needs DoJ to go along:

Full List of Kash Patel's 'Government Gangsters' Who Could Be Targeted

Again, contrary to the title, this is not the Full List. The article expressly states that it’s not “exhaustive”, by Patel’s own statement. That’s obvious enough from the fact that there are no Senators or Congressmen on the list. Nevertheless, it’s a useful reminder during this transition season:

Here are the other current and former officials in Patel's crosshairs, according to the book, which notes that the list is not exhaustive:

• Michael Atkinson: former Inspector General of the Intelligence Community.

• Lloyd Austin: U.S. Secretary of Defense.

• Brian Auten: FBI official who supervised the bureau's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

• James Baker: the former general counsel of the FBI and former deputy general counsel at Twitter.

• Bill Barr: attorney general under Trump.

• John Bolton: Trump's one-time national security adviser.

• Stephen Boyd: the former head of legislative affairs at the Justice Department.

• Joe Biden: President of the United States.

• John Brennan: former CIA director who served under President Barack Obama.

• John Carlin: former acting deputy attorney general and the former head of the national security division at the Justice Department.

• Eric Ciaramella: former Ukraine director of the National Security Council under Obama and former deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council.

• Pat Cipollone: former White House counsel under Trump.

• James Clapper: former director of national intelligence during the Obama administration.

• Hillary Clinton: former Secretary of State under Obama and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.

• James Comey: former FBI director who was fired by Trump in 2017.

• Elizabeth Dibble: former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in London.

• Mark Esper: Secretary of Defense under Trump.

• Alyssa Farah Griffin: former director of strategic communications under Trump and former Pentagon spokesperson.

• Evelyn Farkas: former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia during the Obama administration.

• Merrick Garland: U.S. attorney general.

• Stephanie Grisham: Trump's former press secretary and incoming First Lady Melania Trump's former chief of staff.

• Kamala Harris: Vice President of the United States and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.

• Gina Haspel: former CIA director under Trump.

• Fiona Hill: former National Security Council official under Trump specializing in Russia and Ukraine. Hill was one of the officials who testified at Trump's first impeachment proceeding.

• Curtis Heide: FBI supervisory agent who was investigated for "not identifying exculpatory information as it pertained to one of the Crossfire Hurricane investigations," referring to the FBI's codename for the 2016 Russia inquiry.

• Eric Holder: attorney general during the Obama administration.

• Robert Her: Justice Department special counsel who investigated Joe Biden's handling of classified government documents.

• Cassidy Hutchinson: former aide to Trump's ex-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who testified to Congress' January 6 select committee about Trump's actions related to the Capitol riot.

• Nina Jankowicz: former executive director of the Disinformation Governance Board during the Biden administration.

• Lois Lerner: former director of the Internal Revenue Service under Obama.

• Charles Kupperman: former deputy national security adviser during Trump's first term.

• Kenneth Mackenzie: former head of the United States Central Command and retired Marine Corps General.

• Andrew McCabe: former deputy FBI director during Trump's first term.

• Ryan McCarthy: former secretary of the Army under Trump.

• Mary McCord: the Justice Department's former acting assistant attorney general for national security during the Obama administration.

• Denis McDonough: former Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Obama's one-time chief of staff.

• Mark Milley: former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who called Trump "fascist" and said he was "the most dangerous person to this country."

• Lisa Monaco: deputy U.S. attorney general.

• Sally Moyer: former supervisory lawyer at the FBI.

• Robert Mueller: former FBI director and special counsel who investigated links between the Trump campaign and Russia-linked individuals.

• Bruce Ohr: former associate deputy attorney general who was heavily criticized by Trump and his allies over his contact with the former British spy Christopher Steele, who wrote the so-called Steele dossier..

• Nellie Ohr: Ohr's wife, a former CIA employee who later worked as an independent contractor for Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned the Steele dossier.

• Lisa Page: former FBI lawyer who criticized Trump in text messages with FBI official Peter Strzok.

• Pat Philbin: former deputy White House counsel under Trump.

• John Podesta: senior adviser to Biden, Bill Clinton's former White House chief of staff, former counselor to Obama, and the chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.

• Samantha Power: administrator of the United States Agency for International Development under Biden and former ambassador to the United Nations under Obama.

• Bill Priestap: former assistant director of the FBI's counterintelligence division.

• Susan Rice: former national security adviser to Obama.

• Rod Rosenstein: former deputy attorney general who appointed Mueller to oversee the Trump-Russia investigation.

• Peter Strzok: former deputy assistant director of the FBI's counterintelligence division who criticized Trump in private texts with Lisa Page.

• Jake Sullivan: Biden's national security adviser.

• Michael Sussmann: former Democratic lawyer who was charged with lying to the FBI; Sussmann was acquitted in 2022.

• Miles Taylor: former Department of Homeland Security official during the Trump administration who later wrote an anonymous opinion piece criticizing Trump. Taylor later admitted to writing the piece.

• Timothy Thibault: former assistant special agent at the FBI's field office in Washington, D.C.

• Andrew Weissmann: former DOJ official and former assistant U.S. attorney who served as Mueller's second-in-command during the Russia probe.

• Alexander Vindman: former Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council under Trump. Vindman testified against Trump during his first impeachment proceeding.

• Christopher Wray: director of the FBI.

• Sally Yates: former acting attorney general under Trump and former deputy attorney general under Obama. Trump fired Yates weeks into his first term after she refused to enforce his executive order instating an immigration ban on individuals coming from some Muslim-majority countries.