Stewart led the transition effort before leaving the Pentagon, so it was expected that Patel would take over these responsibilities.
Patel previously worked for Representative Devin Nunes (R.Calif.), Who was the chief Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, and as a fellow, played a key role in enabling Republicans to discredit the Russia probe.
He has also held a number of roles in the Trump administration, including in the Office of National Security Council staff, Richard Grenell, former Acting Director of National Intelligence, and most recently as a White House counterterrorism officer.
Other staff moves: Tom Muir, director of Washington Headquarters Services, will be the agency’s transition director, head of the Department of Defense’s interim working group and leader of the transition’s leading career, the spokesman said.
At the Biden team: Kathleen Hicks, senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is leading a group of more than two dozen people with the transition of the Biden team’s Department of Defense.
