FBI Director Kash Patel is reportedly handing out personalized, branded bottles of bourbon—while suing over claims he is an out-of-control drinker.
The Atlantic’s Sarah Fitzpatrick reported that it is not unusual for Patel, 46, to travel with bottles of Kentucky distillery Woodford Reserve that are engraved with the words “Kash Patel FBI Director,” and an FBI shield. The shield also includes Patel’s preferred spelling of his name: Ka$h.
He gives them out to both FBI staff and civilians he encounters in his duties, according to eight people, including current and former FBI and Department of Justice employees.
The Atlantic reported that one of these Patel-branded bottles was placed on an online auction, and the outlet purchased it. The report said the person who sold it did not want to be identified, but said the booze was a gift from Patel at an event in Las Vegas, where he likes to spend time.
Patel has transported these bottles of bourbon using a Justice Department plane, the outlet reports.
He also reportedly brought them to Milan when he was seen chugging beer with the Team USA Men’s Olympic hockey team, which reportedly did not go over well with President Donald Trump, who does not drink.
One of the bottles was even left behind in the Italian locker room, according to the outlet.
In March, Patel reportedly brought an entire case of the personalized bourbon to the FBI’s training facility in Quantico, Virginia, for a “training seminar” with the UFC.
There, one of the bottles went missing, which prompted Patel to “lose his mind,” according to clients of Kurt Siuzdak, a retired agent who has aided FBI agents with legal problems.
After the alleged freakout, Siuzdak told Fitzpatrick that he was contacted by multiple FBI agents for legal help after Patel began threatening to put them to a polygraph test and prosecute them over the missing booze.
“It turned into a shitshow,” Siuzdak told the outlet, echoing sentiments from other attorneys who were contacted by the Atlantic on similar claims.
The FBI did not dispute that Patel hands out customized booze bottles, but asserted that it was within the bureau’s ethics code, the Atlantic reported. The bureau also said that gifting “bottles in question are part of a tradition in the FBI that started well over a decade ago,” but did not provide evidence of past directors giving out such gifts.
The Atlantic reported that several current and former FBI officials said a director handing out personalized liquor was basically unheard of.
George Hill, a former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst, told The Atlantic: “Handing out bottles of liquor at the premier law-enforcement agency—it makes me frightened for the country,” he said. “Standards apply to everything and everyone—especially the boss.”
The FBI did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
The bombshell story on his personalized liquor bottles follows another piece from Fitzpatrick titled “The FBI Director is MIA,” which detailed Patel’s alleged excessive drinking, erratic behavior, and unexplained absences while running the FBI.
Patel is suing the Atlantic over its original report on his alleged drinking habits, and the FBI reportedly opened an investigation into Fitzpatrick after the article was published.
According to the report, Patel’s security allegedly had trouble waking him up because he was seemingly drunk.
Last year, officials had even requested “breaching equipment”—specialized tools used by SWAT teams, law enforcement, and the military to break through fortified rooms and structures—as the director could not be reached behind locked doors.
His alleged behavior has led some FBI officials to grow concerned about what could happen if the FBI director is needed in the event of a domestic terrorist attack. One official told The Atlantic, “That’s what keeps me up at night.”
Patel has vehemently denied the allegations.
