Rep. Matt Gaetz’s recent withdrawal as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general represented a significant early setback for Trump’s nascent effort to wreck shop in American government — and possibly seek his promised retribution against his political foes and the “enemy within.”

Kash Patel has been well-known for years within Donald Trump’s orbit as a loyal supporter who shares the president-elect’s skepticism of the FBI and intelligence community.

President-elect Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel to take over as FBI director — effectively firing current FBI Director Christopher Wray, who still has three years left in his 10-year term — has set off a firestorm on Capitol Hill.