section_path: Legal and governmental career (2006–2020)/House committee aide (2017–2019)
section_name: House committee aide (2017–2019)
paragraph_text: House committee aide (2017–2019)
  
  In April 2017, Patel began working for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, then led by Representative Devin Nunes. As an aide to Nunes, Patel investigated the theory that Ukrainians were promulgating information about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The New York Times later reported that he was the primary author of the Nunes memo, which alleged that Federal Bureau of Investigation officials abused their authority in the FBI investigation into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials, seeking a warrant for Carter Page, an advisor to Donald Trump, and relying on claims made by Christopher Steele, a British intelligence officer who was allegedly paid by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. The memo's veracity was highly questioned, but it bolstered Patel's standing among Trump allies. In April 2018, the deputy attorney general overseeing the investigation, Rod Rosenstein, asked whether Patel had traveled to London the previous year to interview Steele; according to the Times, he did not provide a definitive answer.
  
  After the commencement of the 116th United States Congress, Patel served as senior counsel for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
  
  In April 2017, Patel began working for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, then led by Representative Devin Nunes. As an aide to Nunes, Patel investigated the theory that Ukrainians were promulgating information about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The New York Times later reported that he was the primary author of the Nunes memo, which alleged that Federal Bureau of Investigation officials abused their authority in the FBI investigation into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials, seeking a warrant for Carter Page, an advisor to Donald Trump, and relying on claims made by Christopher Steele, a British intelligence officer who was allegedly paid by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. The memo's veracity was highly questioned, but it bolstered Patel's standing among Trump allies. In April 2018, the deputy attorney general overseeing the investigation, Rod Rosenstein, asked whether Patel had traveled to London the previous year to interview Steele; according to the Times, he did not provide a definitive answer.
  
  After the commencement of the 116th United States Congress, Patel served as senior counsel for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.