New York: Kash Patel, the current director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is facing renewed controversy after a report claimed he had previously been arrested in separate alcohol-related incidents.
This was mentioned in a letter written in 2005 by Patel as a part of his personnel file at the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office, where he worked, according to a report published in The Intercept.
“We went to a few of the local bars and consumed some alcoholic drinks,” he wrote in the letter, claims the report, which has also been cited by NDTV.
These incidents date back to Patel’s younger years. One case reportedly involved public intoxication, while another related to urination in the open after a night of drinking. The matters were allegedly resolv
ed with fines.
In 2001, Patel wrote that he was arrested for public intoxication for underage drinking in college when he was at the University of Richmond in Virginia, the report claims. Patel helped run Richmond Rowdies, a student fan group. “While attending one of their home basketball games, he wrote that he was escorted out by a school officer because of excessive cheering,” the NDTV report mentions.
Upon exiting the arena, the officer reportedly placed him under arrest for public intoxication, as he was not yet of 21 years of age.
A spokesperson for Patel, Erica Knight, denied the allegations. “These attacks are nothing more than an attempt to undermine a process that has already deemed him suitable to serve and a distraction to the record-breaking success of the FBI under Director Patel,” she said, as quoted by NDTV.
The revelations come days after Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic over claims regarding his alleged drinking habits and unexplained absences from work. Patel has strongly denied those allegations.
Patel, an Indian-origin American lawyer and longtime ally of Donald Trump, has led the FBI since 2025.