A Democratic senator challenged Kash Patel to take a test designed to identify problem drinking behavior on Tuesday amid angry exchanges at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The FBI director’s visit to Capitol Hill was similar to many past showdowns between members of Donald Trump’s Cabinet and various congressional committees, with Patel disparaging the credibility of media reports about his personal life and management of the bureau, and slinging insults at his critics.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland told the FBI director that he did “not care” about what Patel does in his personal life save for when it affects his ability to do his job — then immediately launched into questions about reports in The Atlantic and other publications detailing concerns of senior FBI officials about Patel’s alleged drinking.
Calling the reports categorically false, the FBI director began shouting over Van Hollen and was at one point challenged by the senator to take the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) test to verify that his drinking habits did not rise to the level of problematic.
“I’ll take any test you’re willing to take,” responded Patel. Van Hollen agreed, saying: “I will take it.”
Patel accused the Democrat of drinking alcohol on the taxpayers’ dime, invoking a bizarre incident in El Salvador in 2025 when Van Hollen was visiting a Maryland resident who had been deported to a notorious prison.
Patel accused Van Hollen of drinking alcohol on the taxpayers’ dime, repeating a false claim that the senator drank margaritas with wrongly deported Salvador immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia after he left the country’s brutal CECOT prison in 2025.
Van Hollen has insisted that aides for El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele set a table for the senator’s meeting to create a false impression that they were drinking alcohol in an attempt to discredit the Democrat — a claim that was quickly amplified on social media by Trump’s allies.
“The only person that was slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gang-banging rapist was you,” Patel claimed. In fact, Abrego Garcia has not been convicted of any crime in the U.S.
Patel’s furious refutation of The Atlantic’s reporting comes after the news outlet reported that Patel is frequently seen drinking to the point of excess in public settings and is sometimes unreachable by agents. The bombshell April reporting from the outlet also alleged that the FBI director is deeply paranoid about losing his job and flew into a “freak-out” early that month when he was locked out of his email as he believed it was a sign of his imminent firing.
The FBI director filed a defamation suit against the The Atlantic and its reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick over the story, which is still being litigated in the courts. The outlet and the reporter have said they stand by their story.
The AUDIT process involves a 10-question exam self-administered or given by a physician which analyzes aspects of drinking behavior including dependency and consumption levels and is used by the World Health Organization as a gold standard in identifying problem behavior. It relies on participants to answer honestly, however.
Patel remains at the Justice Department following the sudden firing of Pam Bondi, the former attorney general, apparently over Trump’s continued frustration that the DOJ’s attempts to prosecute his political opponents and perceived enemies has yet to draw real blood. Some efforts were tossed out by courts entirely as it was ruled that the attorney bringing the cases, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed.
The FBI director came under increased scrutiny earlier this year after he was pictured in Milan, Italy, partying alongside members of the U.S. Men’s hockey team in the locker room. The agency denied that Patel was using agency resources specifically for personal trips.
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