FBI Director Kash Patel denies drinking allegations in heated U.S. Senate exchange

FBI Director Kash Patel gets into a heated exchange with Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen over questions about allegations of excessive drinking on the job.

WASHINGTON — FBI Director Kash Patel angrily lashed out at a Democratic lawmaker at a U.S. budget hearing Tuesday, calling allegations that he drinks excessively on the job and has been unreachable to his staff at times “unequivocally, categorically false.”

“I will not be tarnished by baseless allegations and fraudulent statements to the media,” Patel told Sen. Chris Van Hollen during a testy exchange that began when the Maryland Democrat confronted him about a recent article in The Atlantic magazine that painted an unflattering portrait of his leadership of the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency.

Patel has filed a US$250 million lawsuit over the story. The Atlantic has said it stands by its reporting and would vigorously defend against the “meritless lawsuit.”

Patel shouted over Van Hollen and sought to turn the tables by accusing him of “slinging margaritas on the taxpayer dime” in El Salvador, a reference to a visit the Democrat paid last year to Kilmar Abrego Garcia while he was jailed there following his mistaken deportation to the country. “The only person who has been drinking during the day on the taxpayer dime was you.”

“Director Patel, come on,” Van Hollen said. “These are serious allegations that were made against you.” He at one point asked Patel if he was willing to take a test meant to measure whether an individual has a drinking problem, prompting Patel to shoot back, “I’ll take any test you’re willing to take.”

The senator also called Patel’s claims that he had run up an expensive bar tab in El Salvador “provably false.” After last year’s meeting, Van Hollen publicly 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.

The testy exchange occurred at an annual Senate committee budget hearing featuring Patel and other senior law enforcement leaders. The director used the forum to tout what he described as major crime-fighting achievements since he took the position and received a friendly reception from Republican senators who praised his leadership.

Democrats, by contrast, pressed Patel on headline-generating travel that has blended personal leisure with his duties -- including a trip to the Winter Olympics in Italy, where he partied with the U.S. men’s hockey team after their gold medal win -- as well as the mass terminations under his watch of agents who worked on investigations into U.S. President Donald Trump.

• Kash Patel celebrates with U.S. men’s hockey team after win

“You attended the Olympics in Milan,” said Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat. “How much did your trip cost and to what extent did that help you carry out your mission as director of the FBI?”

Patel responded that the FBI was responsible for security at the Olympics and asserted that his trip to Italy helped facilitate the transfer into U.S. custody of a Chinese cyber criminal who’d been detained by Italian authorities.

Eric Tucker, The Associated Press