Washington DC - A former FBI official has expressed concerns about President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Kash Patel to be the agency's new director.

On Thursday's episode of the Highly Conflicted podcast, former FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi explained how "powerful" the director of the agency can be if left "unrestrained, and raised concerns about what Patel plans to do with it.

"You want to open a case and call it a threat assessment or a preliminary investigation, you can do it. If the FBI director wants to get a press conference together, not tell the [Department of Justice], and make pronouncements to the public about a case opening or a case closing or someone should be prosecuted, they can do it," Figliuzzi said.

Figliuzzi went on to raise concerns about Patel's access to classified files, predicting he will demand "every file that has the word Trump in it" on his first day in office.

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"That should be a real concern, that Kash Patel is going through informant files and saying, 'Look at that, this guy coughed it up on Trump.'"

Trump's nomination of Patel has been controversial. The attorney made a name for himself in MAGA circles as a "deep state" conspiracy theorist and also has no relevant experience.

Patel has expressed interest in using the role to shut down the FBI headquarters in Washington DC and weed out "conspirators" in government and media.