Faced with a flurry of questions about his drinking habits from Democratic senators during a hearing Tuesday, FBI Director Kash Patel finally relented — he’d take a test meant to identify the warning signs of alcohol abuse, on one condition: the lawmaker in question fill out the questionnaire as well.
“Let’s go,” Patel told Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who had posed the most acerbic questions of the day. “Side by side.”
The allegations in question were first reported in a bombshell report published by The Atlantic last month. Multiple current and former FBI officials anonymously accused Patel of “bouts of excessive drinking,” with one source saying Patel was “rightly paranoid” to suspect that he might lose his job.
Members of Patel’s security staff had difficulty waking him from behind locked doors on multiple occasions, according to The Atlantic. Sources also told the magazine that Patel’s meetings would have to be pushed back to later in the day “as a result of his alcohol-fueled nights.”
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The FBI director was ostensibly scheduled to testify in front of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday as part of a budget hearing, but lawmakers, particularly Democrats, quickly pivoted to Patel’s alleged misconduct.
When Van Hollen, the subcommittee’s ranking member, pressed Patel on whether he had consumed alcohol while on the job, the FBI director became irate and threw allegations back at the senator.
“The only person that was slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gangbanging rapist was you,” Patel said, referencing Van Hollen’s April 2025 meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia after he was wrongfully deported to a brutal prison in El Salvador.
Van Hollen fired back, calling the accusations “false.” The Maryland senator has long maintained the drinks were placed in front of the pair by someone connected to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s administration to make it appear that Abrego Garcia was being cared for — despite myriad allegations of abuse within El Salvador’s prison system.
“This is a guy who’s been detained. They want to create this appearance that life was just lovely for Kilmar,” Van Hollen told reporters at the time. “If you look at the video he sent out right afterwards with the fake margaritas, you could see that all of that was the setup.”
Patel was also called to justify President Donald Trump’s proposed $12.5 billion budget request for the FBI’s 2027 fiscal year, which is $2 billion more than the previous year. But Van Hollen immediately brought up the allegations against Patel during his opening remarks, and Democrats on the panel all pressed him about The Atlantic’s reporting.
“We should acknowledge that we are not gathered here at this hearing at a normal time, because what we are learning about what’s happening at the FBI is anything but normal. Director Patel, as you ask for more taxpayer resources, we cannot look away from the credible, extremely troubling reports about your misconduct at the FBI,” Van Hollen said.
Patel ultimately agreed to take an Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, a 10-question screening developed by the World Health Organization to identify risky drinking habits. The FBI director also demanded that Van Hollen take one at the same time so the pair could compare results.
The fallout from The Atlantic’s stories has plagued the FBI over the past few weeks, resulting in a House Judiciary Committee investigation and a subsequent $250 million defamation lawsuit from Patel.
Patel, in a press conference last month, vehemently denied the allegations. The FBI director also warned members of the media from publishing similar claims against him.
“I’ve never been intoxicated on the job, and that is why we filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit. And any one of you that wants to participate, bring it on,” Patel said in April.
During the testimony Tuesday, Patel also denied reports that the FBI has been improperly using resources to investigate members of the media. He did not, however, deny that the bureau was dedicating resources to identify the source of leaks.
“I can tell you unequivocally, this FBI is targeting and investigating no journalists,” Patel said in response to a question from Sen. Patty Murray.
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