On Tuesday (May 12), FBI Director Kash Patel appeared before a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, where he was called out about reports of his misconduct detailed in an explosive article by The Atlantic, which included bouts of heavy drinking.
“When your private actions make it impossible for you to perform your public duties, we have a big problem. You cannot perform those public duties if you’re incapacitated,” Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said to Patel at one point during the hearing.
Referencing the article, Van Hollen continued, “And Director Patel, these reports about your conduct, including reports of your being so drunk and hungover that your staff had to force entry into your home, are extremely alarming. If true, they demonstrate a gross dereliction of your duty and a betrayal of public trust.”
Patel vehemently denied the report, calling it “unequivocally, categorically false” before accusing Van Hollen of drinking margaritas during his trip to El Salvador to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was mistakenly deported and imprionsed there.
“The only person who was slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gangbanging rapist was you,” Patel yelled, while also insinuating that the senator ran up a $7,000 bar tab. Van Hollen replied that the claim was false, saying “the fact that you mentioned that indicates you don’t know what you are talking about.”
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Democrats with the House Judiciary Committee asked Patel to take the 10-question AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test ) survey, which gauges the amount of drinks an individual has consumed and whether it has impaired their ability to work or if they were unable to stop drinking. Van Hollen challenged Patel to do the test. “Let’s go,” Patel said. “Side by side.”
In addition to the heavy drinking, Patel has been alleged to have terminated a group of counterintelligence agents who were monitoring threats from Iran, as well as weaponizing the FBI for political retribution against former FBI director James Comey and against investigative journalists.
