FBI Director Kash Patel allegedly handed out customized bottles of bourbon with his name, logo, and the FBI shield as commemorative gifts, according to a new exposé.
The director has given the bottles of Woodford Reserve to staff and civilians alike, eight people told The Atlantic. The magazine was also able to purchase one such bottle via an online auction, which the seller said they had gotten from Patel at an event in Las Vegas.
“Handing out bottles of liquor at the premier law-enforcement agency—it makes me frightened for the country,” former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst George Hill told the magazine. “Standards apply to everything and everyone—especially the boss.”
“The Atlantic’s premise is false and misleading,” FBI assistant director for public affairs Ben Williamson told The Independent in a statement. “The bottles in question are part of a common practice in the FBI that started well over a decade ago, long before Director Patel arrived. Senior Bureau officials have long exchanged commemorative items in formal gift settings consistent with ethics rules. Director Patel has followed all applicable ethical guidelines and pays for any personal gift himself.”
The FBI-branded bottles were created before Patel arrived at the bureau, an FBI official told The Independent, and the director has never consumed any of these bottles himself.
In March, the director reportedly brought a case of bourbon to an FBI training exercise with Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes, the story claims. At the seminar, a bottle went missing, causing the director to “lose his mind,” a former agent told the magazine.
A DOJ plane transported bottles of the customized bourbon to Italy when Director Patel was in Milan for the Olympics in February, the article claims. Patel made headlines for chugging celebratory beers with the victorious men’s hockey team at the event.
Patel, like his boss, the president, is known for selling merchandise featuring his personal brand and iconography. A website he cofounded continues to sell branded merch to support his foundation, and he has reportedly handed out skull-shaped “K$H” challenge coins to associates.
The bourbon allegations come after The Atlantic roiled Washington last month with a previous piece that alleged Patel has behaved erratically, been hard to reach, and drank excessively since taking office, all of which he has strongly denied.
The FBI Director has also filed a defamation lawsuit against the magazine and the article’s author, reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick and the magazine say they stand by their reporting.
The FBI is reportedly considering an investigation into whether government leakers were sources to Fitzpatrick for the article, alarming agents.
“The journalist is not being investigated – false,” Williamson wrote on X on Wednesday. “Every time there’s a publication of false claims by anonymous sources that gets called out, the media plays the victim via investigations that do not exist.”
