FBI Director Kash Patel is in serious trouble — and, according to more than two dozen people who work with him or near him, the country may be too.
A new investigation published Friday in The Atlantic by reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick describes a pattern of heavy drinking, unexplained absences, and erratic behavior.
Patel’s behavior has alarmed officials across the FBI, the Justice Department, the White House, and Congress.
Some of the people she spoke with went so far as to describe the sitting director of the nation’s top law enforcement agency as a threat to public safety.
Patel has denied every word of it. His response to The Atlantic before publication was short:
“Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court — bring your checkbook.”
Hours later, he took to X to repeat the threat, and his legal team circulated a three-page letter warning the magazine of a defamation lawsuit.
What the Reporting Alleges
According to Fitzpatrick’s reporting, Patel’s drinking has been a recurring source of concern inside the Bureau almost from the moment he took office in February 2025.
Sources told her that meetings and briefings in the early months of his tenure had to be pushed back because he had been drinking the night before.
Officials described episodes of what they called “conspicuous inebriation” at private venues in Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas — specifically Ned’s, a members-only club frequented by Trump administration staffers, and the Poodle Room in Las Vegas, where Patel reportedly spends weekends.
Check out the bathroom at the Poodle Room. The corruption with this administration is bad. A Trump sycophant spending taxpayer dollars to party at a Vegas club with this view…
F@&# you, Patel.
The most startling detail in the report involves Patel’s own security detail. On more than one occasion in the past year, agents assigned to protect him were reportedly unable to wake him when he was needed.
In one instance, a request was made for “breaching equipment” — the kind of forcible-entry tools that SWAT and hostage-rescue teams use to get through locked doors — because Patel was passed out inside and couldn’t be reached.
That information was reportedly shared with officials at the Justice Department and the White House.
The reporting also describes a director increasingly paranoid about losing his job. Patel has reportedly confided in current and former officials that he believes he is about to be fired at any moment.
Senior figures in the Trump administration are already discussing potential replacements, according to the magazine, and speculation about his ouster intensified after Attorney General Pam Bondi was fired earlier this month.
The Response From Patel’s Team
The FBI’s public affairs office pushed back hard before publication. In an email to Fitzpatrick, Assistant Director for Public Affairs Benjamin Williamson called the story “one of the most absurd things I’ve ever read” and claimed it was false “at a nearly 100% clip.”
Patel’s personal communications strategist, Erica Knight, went further on X, writing that the intoxication incidents “happened exactly ZERO times” and that the breaching-equipment request “was never requested.” She announced that a lawsuit was being filed.
Fitzpatrick stood by her work publicly. “I stand by every word of this reporting. We have excellent attorneys,” she wrote. She also told The Daily Beast that her sources were not the kind of people who typically speak to the press, and that their willingness to do so reflects genuine alarm.
“For it to be this level of alarm, this is people genuinely concerned that America is a danger as a result of this conduct,” she said. She also noted that when The Atlantic sought comment from the White House and the Justice Department, neither office disputed the underlying claims.
Why This Matters Beyond One Man’s Job
Kash Patel was confirmed as FBI director in February 2025 by a 51-49 Senate vote — one of the narrowest margins in the agency’s history, with only two Republicans, Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, joining Democrats in opposition.
His confirmation was controversial from the start. He had spent years as one of the FBI’s loudest critics, promised to dismantle parts of the Bureau he viewed as politically hostile to Donald Trump, and published a list of so-called “deep state” enemies he believed should be prosecuted.
These allegations land in the middle of a Justice Department already in turmoil after Bondi’s removal, a military engagement with Iran that has stretched civilian and national security infrastructure thin, and a broader pattern of loyalty-based appointments across the Trump administration.
The question Fitzpatrick’s sources appear to be raising is not simply whether Patel is fit for his role on a personal level, but whether the nation’s top domestic law enforcement officer can reliably respond in a crisis.
Patel himself drew attention in February when he was filmed chugging beer in the locker room of the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team after their gold medal win in Milan — an incident his critics cited as unbefitting the office, and which supporters waved off as harmless celebration.
He has also been repeatedly spotted at NHL and UFC events during working hours, including multiple games in early April.
What Happens Next
Whether Patel follows through on his lawsuit threat remains to be seen. The Atlantic is owned by Laurene Powell Jobs and is represented by seasoned First Amendment counsel; its editors were almost certainly aware of the legal exposure before publication.
Defamation suits brought by public officials face a high bar under the “actual malice” standard established by New York Times v. Sullivan — a standard Patel himself referenced, somewhat oddly, in his public threats.
More consequential than any lawsuit is what the White House decides to do next. If the reporting is accurate, the people closest to the FBI director are already openly questioning whether he should remain in the job.
If it’s inaccurate, the administration will need to do more than post denials on social media to restore confidence in the agency’s leadership.
Either way, Americans are left with a troubling picture: the director of the FBI spending his weekends at private clubs, his security detail unable to reach him behind locked doors, and his colleagues so worried about the consequences that they are willing to speak to a reporter about it.
Sources: The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Raw Story, Newsweek, The Wrap, Irish Star, and official statements from FBI Public Affairs and Kash Patel’s legal team.