The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to approve President Donald Trump’s FBI Director nominee Kash Patel Thursday, with Patel likely rejoining Trump’s White House after Patel was able to leverage his stint in Trump’s first administration and loyalty to the president into a moneymaking personal brand and controversial nonprofit.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Patel’s nomination at a confirmation hearing Thursday, after Democrats previously pushed the vote back by a week as they oppose Patel’s confirmation. The committee is likely to approve his nomination despite the overwhelming criticism from Democrats, as Republicans hold a majority on the committee, but it’s still unclear when the full Senate will hold a vote on his confirmation. The Senate’s GOP majority means Patel can be confirmed without any Democratic votes, and Republicans have so far been largely in favor of Patel’s nomination—though it still remains to be seen how key swing votes like Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, could vote.

Patel’s financial disclosure submitted as part of his confirmation process does not report any income made through his merchandise company Based Apparel LLC, which he ran as a managing partner but left in December. He valued his company Dal Forno LLC, which is used for his media appearances and copyright licensing, at between $100,000 and $250,000, but did not report the total income he received through that company. Patel also reported receiving $3,600 in consulting fees from One and Oh LLC, a company linked to his Based Apparel co-owner Andrew Ollis. Patel’s series of children’s books appears to be earning the Trump ally thousands of dollars in royalties, with Patel reporting between $15,000 and $50,000 in income for each of the three books in his children’s book series, based on projected future earnings from the books. He also reported earning between $100,000 and $1 million from his book “Government Gangsters,” and less than $200 from a documentary based on the book. Patel said at his Senate confirmation hearing he did not make any money off of his work producing the Jan. 6 anthem “Justice for All,” as the profits were used for rioters’ legal costs. Patel said the funds were processed through a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization.

While Patel didn’t list the total he’s made off his media company Dal Forno LLC, he did report a number of payments for individual appearances and his work for media companies, including earning $99,000 in contributor fees from The Epoch Times, $165,000 as a contributor for Performance One Media LLC—a media firm that notes on its website it facilitates things like sponsorship deals and product placements—$5,162 in consulting fees from production company Believe Media LLC, and $25,000 from a film company owned by Russian national Igor Lopatonok, who produced a pro-Trump documentary that aired on former Fox host Tucker Carlson’s online broadcasting network. Patel appeared in that documentary series, and The Washington Post reports his payments from the film company, Global Tree Pictures, raises concerns given Lopatonok previously worked on a pro-Russia influence campaign that received funding linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Patel also reports earning at least $5,000 in income for media appearances linked to American Global Strategies, owned by former Trump advisor Robert O’Brien, and Glenn Story, who founded “America’s only conservative cell phone company” Patriot Mobile, and was also paid for consulting work for Cavander Consulting, a firm linked to former Trump PR aide Hope Hicks. Patel also made at least $5,000 for appearances through right-wing organizations The Patriot Voice, Inc., Citizens Defending Freedom, Our Watch and Center for Renewing America. That final organization was founded by Russell Vought, Trump’s new director of the Office of Management and Budget who has drawn controversy for reportedly serving as one of the chief architects behind right-wing policy agenda Project 2025. Patel served as a senior fellow at the nonprofit from March 2021 to February 2023, according to his disclosure.

In addition to leveraging his alliance with Trump into a money-making enterprise, Patel has also made money by working directly for companies and political committees Trump controls. The FBI nominee served as a board member of Trump Media and Technology Group, and SEC filings show he received $120,000 annually from the company as a consultant. (He will leave his position in light of his expected FBI role.) He also did consulting work as a national security advisor for Trump’s political action committee during the 2024 election cycle, reporting on his financial disclosure form that he was paid by Trump’s Save America PAC through the firm Red Curve Solutions. Save America reported paying Red Curve $947,144 throughout the entire 2024 election cycle, though it’s unclear how much went to Patel specifically. The Associated Press reports Patel was paid $544,000 for his work for Trump’s campaign.

One of the more surprising revelations in Patel’s financial disclosure was the Trump ally’s significant work with the company Elite Depot, which filings have suggested owns the controversial Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein. Patel disclosed he was a consultant for Elite Depot until January and holds unvested restricted stock units in the company, which he valued as being worth between $1 million and $5 million. While Patel said in his ethics disclosure that he had ended his consulting work with Elite Depot, he plans to hang onto his shares while at the FBI, as he was told “the likelihood that my duties will involve any [financial matters involving Elite Depot]

Beyond his ties to Elite Depot, Patel’s international ties have also drawn scrutiny. The FBI nominee reported doing more than $5,000 worth of consulting work for CSGM, a branch of the Czech-owned foreign arms conglomerate The Czechoslovak Group (CSG Group). The Associated Press notes Patel’s work for CSGM appears to coincide with the company’s efforts to purchase U.S. ammo manufacturer Vista Outdoor, which Senate Republicans criticized, claiming the Czech companies had ties to Russia and China. CSG Group denied those claims. Patel also disclosed he provided consulting services to the embassy of Qatar, which he said ended in November. He will continue to have a “covered relationship” with Qatar for the next year, however, which means he would have to get written authorization to participate in any FBI work that involves Qatar, or else recuse himself.

Patel promised in his ethics disclosure to end the majority of his moneymaking efforts in order to lead the FBI, saying his companies Trishful and Dal Forno LLC will lay dormant, and he’ll just collect royalties from his books but will not participate in any matters that could involve his publishers. He’ll also resign his position at The Kash Foundation and end his consulting work, and will divest from most of his stock holdings, including in such companies as Meta, Rumble, Apple, NVIDIA and Palantir.

The Kash Foundation has generated scrutiny for its finances since becoming a 501c(3) nonprofit in 2022. While Patel promised publicly the charity would “give away $1 million,” ABC News first reported in 2023 it was unclear how the organization was actually spending its money, noting Patel gave little specific information about who was receiving funding. Tax expert Erin Bradick told ABC it would “likely be problematic" if Patel’s foundation determined “eligibility for its charitable programs based on political party affiliation or prior voting record,” and ABC notes Patel has said that while his foundation would consister giving money to “anyone,” it raises money “for those on the right.” The foundation’s tax filings show it gave away only $52,500 in grants in 2022 and $212,821 in 2023, out of $182,256 it raised in 2022 and $1.2 million taken in in 2023. Tax experts also questioned whether The Kash Foundation was running afoul of rules that bar nonprofits of “political intervention” or providing “private benefit” to people involved with it, as the foundation features links on its website to Patel’s books and videos of him endorsing political candidates, as well as documents related to political events like Jan. 6. In December, left-leaning watchdog Accountable.US also raised questions about the nonprofit paying more than $275,000 in 2023 to a company owned by Andrew Ollis, who serves as the foundation’s vice president and co-founded Based Apparel with Patel. That payment was initially omitted from the organization’s tax filings until a revised version was filed. Patel’s spokesperson Erica Knight has not yet responded to a request for comment on the controversies involving the foundation, though Knight told The Guardian in December the nonprofit’s relationship with Ollis’ company was “fully compliant” with the foundation’s conflict of interest policy, which “require[s] all board members to disclose and recuse themselves from any decisions that are going to involve conflicts of interest.” “While everyone is looking, I can promise you that there is going to be nothing found in the foundation,” Knight told The Guardian more broadly about any alleged issues with the nonprofit.

Patel’s merchandising efforts take after the president himself, who has leveraged his name and fanbase to hawk products and raise money. Trump’s fundraising committee started selling $40 signed mugs this week, one of his first new product offerings since taking office, and the president has sold such items in recent months as watches, sneakers, guitars, NFT trading cards, Bibles, cologne and trading cards that included a piece of the suit he wore in his mugshot.

Trump named Patel to be his next FBI director in November, prompting the existing FBI Director Christopher Wray—whom Trump nominated during his first term—to announce his resignation shortly thereafter, rather than face being fired when Trump took office. Patel’s nomination has drawn widespread criticism from the left because of his fealty to Trump, with Patel vowing to seek retribution against Trump’s enemies, including potentially members of the media and former federal officials whom Patel listed out in his book as being members of the so-called “Deep State” working against Trump. Even officials within Trump’s first administration were critical of him during his first White House tenure, however, pointing to Patel’s extreme loyalty to Trump, relative inexperience and instances in which he allegedly breached protocol. Former NSC official Fiona Hill testified she was told Patel was secretly feeding information about Ukraine—which was not part of his remit—to Trump, for instance, and Trump-era officials also report Patel once claimed then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had received airspace permission to conduct a hostage mission, when in fact he had not. (Patel denies both sets of allegations.) Trump tried to install Patel to serve as deputy director of the CIA or FBI in the final months of his presidency, according to multiple reports, but backed down after then-CIA Director Gina Haspel and then-Attorney General William Barr threatened to resign over the move. Barr vowed Patel would help lead the FBI “over my dead body,” The New York Times reports.