The White House is defending Kash Patel in the wake of a new report from The Atlantic that casts serious doubt on his competence as FBI Director.
"Director Patel remains a critical player on the Administration’s law and order team," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. She also said, "crime across the country has plummeted to the lowest level in more than 100 years and many high profile criminals have been put behind bars."
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche added, "Patel has accomplished more in 14 months than the previous administration did in four years. Anonymously sourced hit pieces do not constitute journalism.”
Here's a look at what The Atlantic revealed — and why numerous people within the FBI are concerned about the director's behavior.
What does The Atlantic article say about Kash Patel?
On Friday evening, The Atlantic published an investigation into Patel's "erratic behavior." Multiple current and former FBI officials told the magazine that they witnessed Patel engage in "bouts of excessive drinking." Sources also said he is known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication at a private club in Washington, D.C., and a members-only lounge in Las Vegas, where Patel is from. According to information given to Justice Department and White House officials, members of Patel's security detail had trouble waking him on multiple occasions because he was "seemingly intoxicated." He was so hard to reach behind locked doors that his team even requested breach equipment — commonly used by SWAT teams for rapid forced entry into buildings.
Patel denied the allegations, saying in a statement to The Atlantic: “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court — bring your checkbook.” On Saturday morning, Patel posted a stronger denial on X. "Memo to the fake news - the only time I’ll ever actually be concerned about the hit piece lies you write about me will be when you stop... no amount of BS you write will ever deter this FBI from making America safe again and taking down the criminals you love."
The issues are serious. The Department of Justice's ethics handbook prohibits employees from "habitually using alcohol or other intoxicants to excess," and its inspector general says that consuming alcohol outside of work, beyond impairing judgment, can make employees susceptible to exploitation or coercion by foreign adversaries. Patel has already been targeted — back in March, his personal email was hacked by an Iran-based group, and some of his personal photos (including a mirror selfie with a large bottle of rum) and documents were leaked.
In addition, multiple officials told The Atlantic that Patel is "prone to jumping to conclusions before he has necessary evidence" — like when he announced on social media that the FBI had detained a "person of interest" in the December 2025 shooting at Brown University, only to later release that person, who was determined not to be the shooter. He also shared inaccurate information in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, a decision FBI officials questioned could have been influenced by alcohol.
Some officials are worried that the U.S. is vulnerable to terrorist attacks with Patel at the helm of the agency, especially now that the U.S. is in a war with Iran. "That’s what keeps me up at night,” one unnamed official told The Atlantic.
Will Kash Patel be fired from the FBI?
Despite publicly defending Patel, the White House may be close to dismissing him, according to some outlets. Sarah Fitzpatrick, The Atlantic journalist who wrote Friday's damning report, told CNN that the director himself "has expressed that he believes that he is about to be fired or that is imminent." She added, "There are senior administration officials who are openly discussing who will be the next FBI director.”
And while President Trump has praised Patel on some occasions, he reportedly was not happy that the FBI director was filmed chugging beer with the U.S. men's hockey team after their Olympic victory — a clip which went viral on social media. The Atlantic reported that Trump, who does not drink, called Patel to express his disapproval, and that the president has complained that Patel has come off unprepared for TV appearances.
The odds of Patel getting fired have surged in the wake of The Atlantic report. In the early morning of April 18, betting app Kalshi was predicting an 84.4% chance that Patel would be out of his job at the FBI by July 1.
Even if Patel weathers the storm, the controversy has already cast a long shadow over his already controversial leadership — and is testing the administration's credibility.
