One of J. Edgar Hoover’s biggest reforms at the FBI was his embrace of fingerprints. In the 1930s, visitors to the FBI offices in Washington, DC, received fingerprint identification cards bearing his name. The men who succeeded him as FBI director were more cautious and fair, reflecting the cult of personality that had developed around Hoover. They generally avoided giving out branded swag.
But then came Kash Patel.
President Trump’s FBI director has a deep love affair with swag. Products sold for a a website he co-founded—still working, nearly 15 months after his term — include beanies ($35), T-shirts ($35), orange camo hats ($65), trucker hats ($25), “government bandits” playing cards (on sale for $10), and Fight With Kash Punisher Scarf ($25).
One thing not sold is alcohol, because alcohol is something that Patel gives away for free.
last month, I reported it that FBI agents were alarmed by what they said was Patel’s erratic behavior and excessive drinking. (The director of the FBI has denied the allegations and filed a defamation case against him Atlantic and me.)
After my story appeared, I heard from people in Patel’s orbit and people he’s met at public events, who told me it’s unusual for him to travel with a supply of private-label bourbon. The bottles bear the logo of Kentucky Woodford Winery, and are engraved with the words “Kash Patel Director of the FBI,” along with the issuance of an FBI shield. Surrounding the shield is a band of text with Patel’s director’s name and his preferred spelling of his first name: Ka$h. The eagle holds a shield in its claws, along with the number 9, perhaps a reference to Patel’s place in the history of FBI directors. In some cases, the 750 ml bottles bear Patel’s signature, with a “#9” there as well. One such bottle popped up on an online auction site shortly after my story appeared, and Atlantic later he bought it. (The person who sold it to us did not want to be named, but said the bottle was a gift from Patel at an event in Las Vegas.)
Atlantic
Patel’s signature with “#9” appears on the bottle found by Atlantic. “#9” is perhaps a reference to his place in the history of FBI directors.
Patel has given bottles of his personal whiskey to FBI agents as well as civilians he meets in the course of his duties, according to eight people, including current and former FBI and Justice Department employees and others who are familiar with Patel’s distribution of the bottles. Many of them spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of punishment.
Patel has distributed his branded bottles while on official business, including at least one FBI incident. He and his team have flown whiskey on the DOJ plane, including when he went to Milan during the Olympics in February. One of the bottles was left in the dressing room, according to a person who was there. (I checked the bottle photo.) On the same trip, Patel was filmed drinking beer with the gold-medal-winning US men’s hockey team—a habit that officials have become accustomed to. he said it did not sit well with the president. Patel defended himself at the time, saying he was fair to celebrate with his “friends”. on the hockey team. Patel’s use of a DOJ plane to transport liquor cases has been a topic of debate among FBI employees.
The FBI did not dispute that Patel was giving away bottles of whiskey bearing his name, but in response to a detailed list of questions, a spokesman pointed to gifts as common within the FBI and the wider government. He added that “the bottles in question are part of an FBI tradition that dates back more than a decade, long before Director Patel arrived. Senior Bureau officials have long exchanged memorabilia in formal gift arrangements in accordance with ethics rules. Director Patel has followed all applicable ethical guidelines and paid for any personal gifts.”
The spokesman declined to elaborate on what ethical rules Patel was following, when the bottles were painted with Patel’s name, or whether any of the bottles had been reimbursed as personal gifts. The FBI also refused to release pictures of bottles bearing the names of former directors. When I reached out to a former FBI director to ask if he had ever seen bottles of private label liquor distributed by a former FBI director, he burst out laughing.
Several current and former FBI employees, including many senior officials, told me that the director routinely handing out his own branded bourbon, including to civilians outside the office, was unheard of. Current and former agents also told me they were concerned with Patel’s gifts of personal bourbon. The FBI has traditionally had a zero-tolerance approach to unauthorized use of alcohol on the job and to its off-duty abuse. But that rate is bending under Patel’s leadership, one former agent told me. “It’s very strange and uncomfortable,” this person said. Another former agent called the bottles “disheartening,” because they suggest one set of standards for the director and another for the entire office. This person said he believes that many agents will be worried that if the director gives you a bottle, and “there on the board to receive it with enthusiasm, you get polygraphed honestly.” The fear of punishment has prevented some employees from reporting their problems to management or through the channels reserved for whistleblowers.
In March, Patel and his team brought at least one case of bourbon to an FBI training facility in Quantico, Virginia, for a “training seminar,” where Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes gave mixed-martial arts instruction to aspiring FBI agents and senior staff. On one occasion at least one bottle went missing, which caused the director to “lose his mind,” according to clients of Kurt Siuzdak, a retired agent who has helped FBI agents, including informants, with legal matters. Siuzdak told me that many agents contacted him for legal guidance after Patel began threatening a polygraph and suing his employees over the missing bottle. “It turned into a shitshow,” Siuzdak said. Other attorneys told me they received similar calls from FBI employees about concerns about Patel’s bottles.
Siuzdak and other lawyers said their clients are in a difficult situation. FBI agents “have a responsibility to uncover wrongdoing,” Siuzdak said. But if you make allegations against Patel, you are “deluded.” Siuzdak said agents are particularly concerned about reputational damage from proximity to conduct that is not clearly within FBI rules and regulations, which could be used to impeach their professional integrity. “Street agents know that integrity is the most important thing in their job,” he said. “Without integrity, you cannot testify.”
Siuzdak, whose career spanned more than 20 years in the FBI as well as a stint in the military, has some unusual advice for current FBI employees seeking his advice: “I tell people to run from him.”
A Woodford Reserve spokeswoman said she had no information about who ordered the bottles or when. “Consumers who buy Woodford’s Reserve often have images and messages engraved on the bottle,” Elizabeth Conway, director of external communications for the distillery’s parent company, told me. “These drawings happen after point of purchase.”
Patel’s passion for bourbon is long-standing; during Trump’s first administration, he and his colleagues on the National Security Council put a barrel around to celebrate negotiations and the rescue of hostages, The New Yorker was reported last year. (Patel served as director general of the counter-terrorism council at the time.)
Patel’s passion for branded products is also well documented. “He’s known as a big businessman,” one DOJ employee told me. Even before he was confirmed as FBI director, Patel sent boxes of Ka$h-branded merchandise that included hats, socks, and other items featuring the comic book character The Punisher, one person who received one such box told me. Like my colleague Elaina Plott Calabro information in 2024, before Patel became the director of the FBI, he previously sold “Justice for All” #J6PC in honor of those arrested for their actions on January 6, 2021. (The item is no longer available from the Kash Foundation, which was founded by Patel but is now, according to its website, “an unlicensed nonprofit organization that is not authorized, affiliated, or influenced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, or any government agency.”)
eBay; CSPAN; William Turton / X; Health Ranger Report
From top left: Screenshot of Kash Patel’s challenge coin; Patel wearing one of his scarves; Kash Patel shoes; Patel wearing his own products on Health Ranger Report podcast; another coin of Patel’s challenge. Bottom right: Photo taken in the Olympic locker room and released to Atlantic shows another personal bottle of Kash Patel’s bourbon.
In a wrongful termination lawsuit filed in September, former Assistant Director of the FBI’s Washington Office, Steven Jensen, described an interaction in Patel’s conference room in which the director gave him an unusually large challenge coin—a reminder often issued by leaders in law enforcement and military agencies. The coin was written Director up and Ka$h Patel below.
“Jensen then observed a collection of whiskey bottles and cigarettes on Patel’s desk,” the complaint states. According to the complaint, “Patel explained that he used to make his own brand of cigarettes, but they were no longer made.” Jensen, who oversaw parts of the investigation into pro-Trump protesters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, was fired in August. (The U.S. government has moved to dismiss the case, and the case is ongoing.) Jensen’s attorney, Margaret Donovan, told me in a statement that “there are line agents out there spending their nights and weekends trying to finish warrants, write reports, plan arrests. Yet the FBI Director seems to have time to create a logo, go on a hockey podcast, hours of hockey interviews. The country, not a vehicle for self-promotion and self-promotion.”
A month before Jensen’s firing, Patel’s products caused an international diplomatic incident. In July, Patel gave 3-D printed pistols to two members of New Zealand’s cabinet, as well as several members of the country’s police and intelligence services, the Associated Press reported. information. New Zealand security officials were forced to destroy the items because they are illegal under local law, according to the AP. A spokesperson for Patel said in a statement to the AP that “the gift item was a 3D-printed prototype gun, and it was specifically designed to be fireproof.”
George Hill, a former FBI management intelligence analyst, told me that Patel’s conduct represented a fundamental misunderstanding of the bureau’s history and the culture of quiet professionalism he saw working under previous FBI directors. “Handing over bottles of alcohol to a major law enforcement agency—I fear for the country,” he said. “Standards apply to everything and everyone – especially the boss.”
Hill and others described an organization struggling to hold on to its mission amid an experienced staff and under disorganized leadership. “When you denigrate the office like that, you denigrate the impact,” Hill said, adding that he was very concerned about what would happen during the crisis. “It is a failure to lead.”
Marie-Rose Sheinerman contributed to this report.
