FBI director Kash Patel questioned about alleged drinking on the job

3 hours ago The Front Page News

US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel appeared to go on an erratic tangent when questioned by US senator Chris Van Hollen about media reports of his “alleged episodes of excessive drinking, unexplained absences and behaviour”.

An article in The Atlantic magazine cited more than a dozen sources who raised concerns about “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences” by Patel, saying the behaviour “alarmed officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ).”

Patel denied the allegations when questioned about them by Van Hollen, calling them “fraudulent”. The FBI director then claimed Van Hollen had been caught “slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gangbanging rapist”. Patel went on to repeat that claim several times while Van Hollen struggled to get a word in.

Patel’s statements are in reference to Van Hollen’s visit to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia while he was jailed following his mistaken deportation to El Salvador.

Van Hollen called Patel’s allegation that he was “the one drinking margaritas with felons”, false.

The senator has previously accused El Salvador’s government of having misrepresented the nature of his encounter with Abrego Garcia, saying officials there had staged the meeting with drinks appearing to be alcohol and angled to set the meeting by a hotel pool.

Patel has filed a defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic and its reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick over the article initially titled “Kash Patel’s Erratic Behaviour Could Cost Him His Job,” which was later amended to “The FBI Director is MIA”.