When faced with published reports calling you “an out-of-control drinker,” said Annabella Rosciglione in the Daily Beast, it’s best not to hand out “personalized, branded bottles of bourbon.”
Journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick two weeks ago followed up her recent article in The Atlantic on FBI Director Kash Patel’s reported binge drinking—which triggered him to file a $250 million defamation lawsuit—with a “bombshell” new revelation that he travels with bourbon bottles engraved with “Ka$h Patel” and an FBI badge. According to the article, Patel has distributed this “boozy merch” at such venues as the Milan Winter Olympics and an FBI training seminar taught by Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes. When one bottle mysteriously disappeared from the training seminar, a panicky Patel seemed to “lose his mind” and threatened to polygraph-test his staff to find the culprit. An FBI spokesman claimed that it’s common practice for directors to hand out gifts. But the bureau actually frowns on agents drinking, and when Fitzpatrick asked a former longtime official whether directors commonly handed out liquor, “he burst out laughing.”
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