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Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have sent a letter addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel demanding answers regarding a recent article in The Atlantic that alleges he regularly engages in excessive partying, drinking, and travel at the expense of taxpayers.
“A damning and explosive report recently revealed that the men and women of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are privately — and at times publicly — alarmed by your ‘episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences,'” the letter informed Patel.
The letter-writers noted that, according to the report, “there are numerous accounts that you consume alcohol to the point of illness, direct profanity-laced outbursts at support staff, and pass out drunk behind locked doors in episodes making you so unreachable that agents have had to fetch SWAT-level breaching equipment to awaken you.” Patel’s behavior has also “led to delays in time-sensitive decisions” for the bureau, and “undermined high-stakes criminal investigations, including the manhunt for the mass shooter at Brown University and the search for the assassin of Charlie Kirk last year,” the Democrats said, again citing the report.
Though relying heavily on The Atlantic article, the lawmakers also said Patel’s inappropriate behavior has become “notorious,” citing, for example, his chugging of beers with the men’s U.S. Hockey Team after their gold-medal win at the Olympics.
In response to both the report and these public displays, the lawmakers are requesting that Patel submit to Congress an Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), a questionnaire that helps determine a person’s harmful patterns of alcohol consumption. The 10-question AUDIT includes asking respondents how frequently they drink alcohol (and how many drinks they have when they do), whether they’re able to stop drinking for extended periods of time, and whether they have forgotten events that occurred while they were drinking, among other questions.
The Judiciary Dems encouraged a swift response from Patel. “The American people deserve to hear the facts directly from you now — not your lawyers weeks or months from now,” they said.
The Atlantic article that Democrats on the committee rely on is based on correspondence with several former and current FBI officials, members of Congress, former advisers, and others in Patel’s orbit. Those sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect themselves from retribution, “described Patel’s tenure as a management failure and his personal behavior as a national-security vulnerability,” the publication noted.
The report also pointed to the Department of Justice (DOJ) ethics handbook, which states that “an employee is prohibited from habitually using alcohol or other intoxicants to excess.”
In response to the article, Patel filed a defamation lawsuit earlier this week against The Atlantic, alleging that their reporting was an example of “actual malice” — the high standard of proof for public officials to win such cases, which includes demonstrating that reporters knowingly published the story using false information or with disregard for seeking the actual truth.
“We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” the publication said in response to the lawsuit.
A similar defamation lawsuit from Patel, filed against Frank Figliuzzi, a former FBI official who is now a contributor for MS NOW, was dismissed on Wednesday by a Texas-based judge.
Figliuzzi’s comments mirrored what The Atlantic’s reporting suggested — that Patel is a partier who is not fully focused on running the FBI.
“Reportedly, he’s been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building,” Figliuzzi said last year.
First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams believes Patel’s lawsuit against The Atlantic could meet the same fate.
“He needs to meet the daunting burden of showing that The Atlantic knew or suspected that what it said about him was false,” Abrams told Law&Crime, adding, “I wouldn’t bet on” Patel being able to do so.
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