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The Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee used recent reports from The Atlantic to troll FBI Director Kash Patel over his alleged alcohol use in a series of social media posts Thursday.
Last month, The Atlantic’s Sarah Fitzpatrick published an article that reported how Patel “has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences,” citing two dozen anonymous sources who said he had been publicly drunk “to the point of obvious intoxication” on multiple occasions, the FBI has had to reschedule meetings “as a result of his alcohol-fueled nights,” and that once he was so intoxicated his security detail “had difficulty waking” him and had make a “request for ‘breaching equipment’—normally used by SWAT and hostage-rescue teams to quickly gain entry into buildings…because Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors.”
Patel vociferously denied the claims in the report and filed a lawsuit against The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick. The typo-riddled complaint faces substantial challenges to make it to trial, especially the discovery requests Patel would have to answer. On Wednesday, MS NOW reported that the FBI had launched a criminal investigation into the alleged leaks to Fitzpatrick; an FBI spokesperson denied that report as well.
Fitzpatrick followed up her initial bombshell report with new reporting on Wednesday about Patel’s penchant for handing out as gifts his “personalized bourbon stash,” bottles of Woodford Reserve bourbon with his name and an FBI logo engraved on the side.
These reports — plus Patel’s much-publicized beer-chugging moment at the Olympics — have raised eyebrows as being a sharp departure from the temperament expected at the traditionalist FBI, and Fitzpatrick’s article quoted numerous critics who bashed Patel’s boozy gifts as “unheard-of” for a top FBI official, as well as “weird and uncomfortable” and “demoralizing.”
The Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, led by Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), are among Patel’s critics, sending the FBI director a letter in the wake of Fitzpatrick’s April report demanding that he answer questions under oath “to determine for ourselves whether your continued leadership of the FBI in fact constitutes a severe ‘national security vulnerability””:
For the sake of our own security, we need to know, for example, “how many drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when you are drinking,” “how often during the last year have you failed to do what was normally expected from you because of drinking,” “how often during the last year have you needed a first drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session,” and “how often during the last year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because you had been drinking?”
The Judiciary Democrats’ account on X posted several tweets after the new report about Patel’s personalized bourbon bottles.
In one, the account shared the MS NOW report saying the FBI was investigating The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick.
The post’s caption mocked Patel as “J. Edgar Boozer,” a nickname inspired by his predecessor at the agency, J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI when it was officially organized in 1935:
Director Patel, you still haven’t taken the alcohol abuse test we provided. And now you’re abusing FBI resources to track down the people who expressed concern about your drinking. When your own staff are calling you “J. Edgar Boozer,” it may be time to admit you have a problem.
Also, in case you and AG Blanche need a reminder — retaliating against whistleblowers is ILLEGAL.
Another post included a photo of the Patel-branded bourbon from the Atlantic report.
“The Kash Patel bourbon: strong notes of insecurity, narcissism, incompetence and alcohol-fueled national security risk. Pairs well with taxpayer-funded getaways and the occasional SWAT-assisted wake-up call,” the post read. “WARNING: The Kash Patel bourbon impairs judgment, undermines critical FBI decisions and causes paranoia.”
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