There had been speculation that the former Michigan Republican could be named to head the bureau.
An aide to President-elect Donald Trump said on Friday that the incoming administration will not select former Rep. Mike Rogers to be the next FBI director.
“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,” Trump aide Dan Scavino wrote on social media platform X.
Rogers, former U.S. House Intelligence Committee chairman, unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, losing to Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.).
Rogers, a former Michigan House representative and FBI official, told Fox News on Friday that the “bureau has lost [the] confidence of the American people,” adding that the FBI should apply resources targeting human trafficking, drug trafficking, crime, and related matters.
“People have lost faith in the FBI. And they don’t even know it,” he said. “Somebody like me? I can restore that faith,” he said.
Earlier in the interview, he cautioned that Trump has not publicly said whether he is going to oust FBI Director Christopher Wray, who he had appointed during his first term in office.
Rogers said that “the culture of the FBI on the seventh floor needs to be changed” and that “you can cure the cancer without killing the patient, and that’s exactly what needs to happen at the FBI.”
“There’s a lot of agents that want to get back to work,” he said, adding that he believes that the bureau has been politicized. “I know how to challenge it and … refocus it. Any personal animus somebody would have politically” and still being involved in investigations “needs to go,” he added.
Trump personally has not made any public comments on who he might name to take Wray’s position as director. Recent reports by media outlets citing anonymous sources have indicated he is looking at selecting Rogers and former director of national intelligence adviser and Epoch Times contributor Kash Patel, who also served as then-acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller’s chief of staff in late 2020 and early 2021.
In Scavino’s post on Truth Social, he did not make mention of Patel or anyone else.
Earlier this week, Vice President-elect JD Vance said in a now-deleted post on social media platform X that the transition team is actively interviewing candidates for the FBI director position.
“When the 11th Circuit vote happened, I was meeting with President Trump to interview multiple positions for our government, including for FBI Director,” Vance wrote on X, adding that he believes it is “important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state.”
Some Republican senators and at least one Democratic senator have expressed an interest in Rogers becoming the FBI director.
“I am a big fan of Mike Rogers, and should there be an opening, he would be my choice,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told news outlet Semafor earlier this week, while Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) said he “would be outstanding.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) told the news outlet that Rogers is a “straight shooter,” adding that with Patel, he is on the “Trump messaging team,” without elaborating.
Rogers is “a terrific guy,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “I don’t know Kash Patel. But, is Christopher Wray going to resign? That’s a 10-year term, so it may be a little premature.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) told the outlet that he would back Patel, describing him as a “great” and “smart” candidate who “knows a lot about law enforcement.”
“He’s loyal to the president. And those are pretty much the top requirements,” he said, adding he isn’t familiar with Rogers.
In a recent interview, Patel expressed disdain for the FBI, saying he would shut down the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the bureau’s headquarters in Washington, and turn it into a museum.
“I‘d shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen the next day as a museum of the deep state. And I’d take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals,” he said.
The Epoch Times contacted both the FBI and the Trump campaign for comment on Friday but received no reply by publication time.