New Kash Patel report details FBI director’s bourbon habit; Trump’s reaction to Milan Olympics stunt revealed

New Kash Patel report details FBI Director’s bourbon habit (Photo by TASOS KATOPODIS / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

FBI Director Kash Patel is handing out personalized and branded bottles of bourbon, it has been reported. The Atlantic’s Sarah Fitzpatrick reported that this is not unusual, as Patel often travels with bottles of Kentucky distillery Woodford Reserve that are engraved with the words “Kash Patel FBI Director,” and an FBI shield. The shield even has Patel’s preferred spelling of his name: Ka$h.

Patel reportedly gives these bottles out to both FBI staff and civilians he meets in his duties, according to eight people, including current and former FBI and Department of Justice employees.

One of these bottles was placed on an online auction, the Atlantic reported, and the outlet purchased it. The person who sold it did not want to be identified. However, they said that booze was a gift from Patel at an event in Las Vegas.

Patel has transported these bourbon bottles using a Justice Department plane, per the outlet.

Kash Patel’s Milan Olympics stunt

Patel reportedly brought these bottles to Milan, where he was caught on video chugging beer with the Team USA Men’s Olympic hockey team. This reportedly did not sit well with President Donald Trump, who does not drink.

The outlet reported that one of the bottles was left behind in the Italian locker room.

Patel reportedly brought an entire case of the personalized bourbon to the FBI’s training facility in Quantico, Virginia, back in March for a “training seminar” with the UFC. One of the bottles went missing there, which made Patel “lose his mind,” according to clients of Kurt Siuzdak, a retired agent who has aided FBI agents with legal problems.

Following the alleged meltdown, Siuzdak told Fitzpatrick that several FBI agents contacted him for legal help after Patel started to threaten to put them to a polygraph test and prosecute them over the missing bottle.

“It turned into a sh**show,” Siuzdak told the outlet.

The FBI said that handing out customized booze bottles was within the bureau’s ethics code, the Atlantic reported. The bureau further said that gifting “bottles in question are part of a tradition in the FBI that started well over a decade ago,” but did not provide evidence of past directors handing out such gifts.

George Hill, a former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst, told The Atlantic, “Handing out bottles of liquor at the premier law-enforcement agency—it makes me frightened for the country. Standards apply to everything and everyone—especially the boss.”

Donald Trump’s disappointment

Trump was disappointed in Patel’s behavior at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and even told Patel so during a conversation, according to a person familiar with the matter, NBC News reported. Trump told Patel that he was not only unhappy with the beer-chugging video, but also with his use of government aircraft for the trip to Milan, according to the person familiar with the matter.

In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson went on to tout crime rates “dropping across the board.”

“This is a direct result of the President’s law and order agenda which is being successfully implemented by his law and order team, including FBI Director Kash Patel,” she said. “The President has full confidence in his Administration.”

Patel’s Italy trip coincided with the shooting of an armed man who entered the security perimeter of Mar-a-Lago. Amid widespread criticism, Patel insisted that the trip to Italy was not just for the Olympics but also to meet with Italian law enforcement, and US agencies providing security at the event.

“For the very concerned media — yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys- Greatest country on earth and greatest sport on earth,” Patel wrote on X after the locker-room video was posted.