Seema Verma, Ajit Pai, Kash Patel don't resign over pro-Trump mob violence
Two cabinet secretaries, Betsy DeVos and Elaine Chao, and more than a dozen senior officials in President Donald Trump’s administration resigned in protest after a mob of Trump supporters violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
However not a single Indian American official in the Trump administration resigned over the mob attack.
The Indian American officials who stuck with Trump, till his term ends tomorrow, include Ajit Pai (in photo), Kash Patel,Seema Verma, Neil Chatterjee, Manisha Singh and Vishal Amin.
Rita Baranwal’s resignation, while creating confusion over her intentions due to its timing, was not in protest, at least not publicly. On January 8 she tweeted, ”Today is my last day as Assistant Secretary…” She did not criticize or even mention the violent attack two days earlier, which led the other Trump officials to resign.
Instead, she sidesteps the fact that she served under Trump, who nominated her to became an Assistant Secretary of Energy (Nuclear Energy), in 2019. Her tweet goes on to imply she served the nation: “It has been an absolute honor to serve in this capacity to help advance our U.S. nuclear energy R&D.”
Four days later, on January 12, Baranwal took up a position as the Vice President of Nuclear Energy at the Electric Power Research Institute, mainly a lobbying group for U.S. electrical utilities, with its head office in Palo Alto, California.
Before joining Trump’s Administration, Baranwal served as Director of Technology Development & Application at Westinghouse. She has a bachelor’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in materials science and engineering and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in the same discipline from the University of Michigan.
In November 2020, Kashyap (Kash) Patel was appointed Chief of Staff to Trump’s acting Secretary of Defense. This was reportedly part of Trump’s efforts to appoint officials loyal to him in key posts at the department.
Previously, Patel served as the Deputy Assistant to President Trump and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council. He also served as Principal Deputy to the Acting Director of National Intelligence.Before joining the Trump Administration, Patel was the National Security Advisor and Senior Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
A native of New York, Patel completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond, in Virginia, before earning his law degree. His official biography, which states he got a Certificate in International Law from University College, London, does not mention where he got his law degree. He reportedly got his law degree from Pace University, New York. Patel is an ice hockey player and coach.
Patel was born and raised in Garden City, Long Island, New York. His parents have family ties in Gujarat, India. Patel’s mother is from Tanzania and father from Uganda, NDTV reported. In 1970, his parents immigrated to the U.S. via Canada.
Vishal Amin is among Indian Americans who stayed on in the Trump administration till the last day. In 2017, the Trump appointee took on the job of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, a post dubbed “IP czar.”
Earlier Amin served in several legal roles in the government, including as Senior Counsel on the House Judiciary Committee, Amin holds a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University and a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis.
In 2017, Trump appointee Manisha Singh took over as the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs. She leads a team of over 200 employees in the bureau, which also serves as the home bureau for economic officers posted in embassies around the world.
Earlier, Singh practiced law in the Corporate and Capital Markets group at Squire Sanders & Dempsey and was in International Practice at Reed Smith. She was an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan Chase in the International Government Relations group.
Singh completed a Master of Laws in International Legal Studies, with concentration in international trade, at the American University’s Washington College of Law. While completing this degree, she worked in the Office of General Counsel at the United States International Trade Commission. She earned a JD from the University of Florida College of Law and a BA with honors at the University of Miami at the age of 19. She is admitted to practice law in Florida, the District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania. She speaks fluent Hindi and conversational Spanish.
In 2017, Trump appointed Neil Chatterjee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). He served as the commission’s Chairman from August 2017 to December 2017 and again from October 2018 to November 2020.
Earlier Chatterjee served as an advisor to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky. A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Chatterjee is a graduate of St. Lawrence University and the University of Cincinnati, College of Law.
Also in 2017, Trump appointee Seema Verma became the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). She oversees one of the largest U.S. federal agencies that administers healthcare programs to over 100 million Americans.
In a September 2020 report, Congressional Democrats alleged that Verma extensively abused nearly $6 million in taxpayer funds to boost her public image. Back in 2018, Verma sought $47,000 in reimbursement from taxpayers for items stolen, reportedly including a $5,900 Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, while she was giving a speech in San Francisco. HHS reimbursed her only $2,852.40 of the total claimed, ABC News reported.
Before becoming CMS Administrator, Verma ran SVC,a national health policy consulting company.she founded in 2001. Its focus is on figuring out ways the government can cut the costs of medicaid services based on “elements of personal responsibility, price- and quality-conscious healthcare consumption, and a focus on healthy lifestyles.”
Verma received her Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and her Bachelor’s from the University of Maryland.She was born in Virginia.“She grew up in a Democratic household. I am a staunch Democrat,” her dad Jugal Verma, an immigrant from India, told The Guardian.
In 2017, Trump appointed Ajit Pai as the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Earlier he served as a Commissioner at the FCC, which oversees regulation of the media, telecommunications and internet businesses.
In the private sector, Pai was a partner at the law firm Jenner & Block and a counsel at Verizon Communications. He has a long career in the U.S. government: Deputy General Counsel, Associate General Counsel, and Special Advisor to the General Counsel of the FCC; chief counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights; Senior Counsel to the Department of Justice; Deputy Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Court.
Pai started his legal career as a law clerk for Martin L.C. Feldman, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. A Harvard graduate, he earned his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review. The son of immigrants from India, Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas.
Speaking in an exit interview on CNBC TV today, a day before the Trump’s administration ends and Joe Biden takes over, he said he was honored to serve in the Trump administration for the past four years. When asked what he was going to do next, Pai said he would spend time drinking lots of coffee and decide.