Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said that FBI Director Kash Patel is really on the run now following a series of intense accusations regarding his conduct while leading the bureau. This development follows a week of heavy scrutiny into the director’s professional behavior and personal habits.
The situation escalated on Tuesday evening when Raskin, who serves as the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, made his comments during an interview, as reported by The Hill. It’s clear that the political pressure on Patel is mounting rapidly as more details emerge about his tenure.
The controversy centers on a recent report published by The Atlantic, which gathered accounts from various Justice Department and FBI officials. These sources claimed that Patel’s alcohol consumption has been a recurring source of concern across the government. According to the reporting, the director’s security detail allegedly had difficulty waking him because he was seemingly intoxicated, which frequently forced meetings to be pushed later in the day.
The article further suggested that Patel was concerned about the potential of losing his job
In response to these reports, the Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee took formal action. They sent a letter to both Patel and the committee chair, Jim Jordan, requesting that the FBI director complete an alcohol disorders test. Specifically, the lawmakers want Patel to fill out the 10-question Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, which was developed by the World Health Organization to identify hazardous and harmful patterns of alcohol consumption.
The tone of the letter was quite severe. The group of Democrats wrote, “These glimpses of your relationship to alcohol would be alarming to see in an FBI agent, and for us to see them in the FBI Director himself is shocking and indicative of a public emergency.”
They also highlighted the report’s claim that “There are numerous accounts that you consume alcohol to the point of illness, direct profanity-laced outbursts at support staff, and pass out drink behind locked doors in episodes making you so unreachable that agents have had to fetch SWAT-level breaching equipment to waken you.”
Raskin labeled Patel as “a guy who the public has understood for a long time is just not qualified for the job and is nothing but a political sycophant and flunky for Donald Trump.” Raskin also made several other accusations, claiming that Patel has abused the privileges of his office by misusing government jets for himself and his girlfriend.
He further alleged that Patel has maintained an anti-gay kick, fired FBI workers for political reasons, and has been actively working to cover up the crimes of convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Raskin went as far as to compare Patel’s current trajectory to that of former Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, both of whom were recently removed from their positions by the President.
Patel filed a defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic, seeking $250 million in damages for the article titled “The FBI Director is MIA.” During a press conference, Patel directly addressed the allegations, stating, “I’ve never been intoxicated on the job, and that is why we filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit. And any one of you that wants to participate, bring it on. I’ll see you in court.” He also denied reports that he was locked out of his government computer or that he believed he had been fired, calling those claims an absolute lie.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche also weighed in during the press conference to defend the director. Blanche criticized the reliance on anonymous sources, noting that he was not informed of the allegations despite the article suggesting that senior Justice Department personnel were aware of these issues. He emphasized that reporters have an obligation to perform due diligence when relying on such reports.
Published: Apr 22, 2026 06:00 pm