FBI Director Kash Patel Denies Drinking Allegations in Heated Senate Exchange
Washington: FBI Director Kash Patel lashed out at a Democratic lawmaker at a budget hearing Tuesday, calling allegations that he drank excessively at work and was at times unreachable to his staff as “absolutely, categorically false.”
“I will not be tainted by baseless allegations and accounts of fraud from the media,” Patel told Sen. Chris Van Hollen during a bitter exchange that began when the Maryland Democrat confronted him about a recent article in The Atlantic that painted a poor portrait of his leadership at the nation’s top federal law enforcement agency.
Patel filed a $250 million lawsuit over this story. The Atlantic said it stands behind its reporting and will defend vigorously against the “meritless lawsuit.”
Patel yelled at Van Hollen and tried to turn the tables by accusing him of “drinking margaritas on taxpayers’ dime” in El Salvador; This was in reference to a visit the Democrat made to Kilmar Abrego Garcia last year while he was incarcerated there after being wrongly deported.
“You’re the only one drinking all day long on taxpayers’ money,” Patel said.
“Director Patel, come on,” Van Hollen said. “These are serious allegations made against you.”
At one point he asked Patel if he wanted to take a test aimed at measuring whether a person had a drinking problem, prompting Patel to retort: ”I’ll take any test you want to do.”
The senator called allegations that Patel drank a margarita in El Salvador “absolutely false.” Following last year’s meeting, Van Hollen accused the El Salvador government of misrepresenting the nature of his encounter with Abrego Garcia, saying officials there staged the meeting with what appeared to be alcoholic beverages and angled to set the meeting next to a hotel pool.
The acrimonious exchange took place at an annual Senate subcommittee budget hearing attended by Patel and other senior law enforcement leaders. The director used the forum to tout what he described as major crime-fighting achievements since taking office and received a friendly reception from Republican senators who praised his leadership.
Democrats, by contrast, have pressed Patel for headline-making travel that blends professional duties with private entertainment (including a trip to the Winter Olympics in Italy, where he partied with the U.S. men’s hockey team after winning the gold medal), as well as mass firings of agents working on investigations into President Donald Trump.
“You attended the Olympics in Milan,” said Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat. “How much did your trip cost, and to what extent did it assist you in fulfilling your duties as FBI director?”
Patel responded by saying the FBI was responsible for Olympics security and suggested that the trip to Italy facilitated the transfer to U.S. custody of a Chinese cybercriminal detained by Italian authorities.
