FBI Director Kash Patel has developed a habit of handing out personalized merchandise — including self-branded bourbon bottles — to bureau employees and civilians alike, a practice that current and former agents say is highly unusual and without parallel in their experience at the nation’s top law enforcement agency, according to a report published Wednesday by The Atlantic.
The bottles, filled with Woodford Reserve Kentucky straight bourbon, are engraved with the words “Kash Patel FBI Director” and bear a rendering of an FBI shield. Some are autographed with the notation “#9” — a figure Mr. Patel uses in connection with his directorship, though it does not reflect the historical sequence of FBI directors, of whom there have been far more than nine. The Atlantic obtained one such bottle from an anonymous seller who said it was given to him by Mr. Patel at an event in Las Vegas.
Eight people, including current and former FBI and Justice Department employees, told The Atlantic that it is routine for Mr. Patel to travel with a supply of the personalized bourbon, including on government aircraft. He reportedly transported cases of the whiskey on a DOJ plane during a trip to Milan in February when he was filmed celebrating with the gold medal-winning U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team — conduct that officials said did not sit well with President Trump, who does not drink. A bottle was left behind in an Olympic locker room during that trip.
In March, Mr. Patel brought at least one case of the bourbon to the FBI’s training facility in Quantico, Virginia, during a seminar that featured Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes. When a bottle went missing, Mr. Patel reportedly threatened to polygraph and prosecute staff members over its disappearance. Kurt Siuzdak, a retired agent who assists FBI employees with legal matters, said multiple agents contacted him for guidance in the aftermath.
“It turned into a s—-show,” Mr. Siuzdak said, adding that he now advises current FBI employees who seek his counsel: “I tell people to run from him.”
The FBI did not dispute the bourbon gifting but said in a statement that the practice is “part of a tradition in the FBI that started well over a decade ago, long before Director Patel arrived.” The bureau added that Mr. Patel “has followed all applicable ethical guidelines and pays for any personal gift himself.” However, the FBI declined to clarify which ethical rules applied, when the bottles were engraved, or whether any had been reimbursed. When The Atlantic contacted a former senior FBI official to ask whether he had ever seen a director distribute personally branded liquor, the official burst out laughing.
Several current and former agents described the bottles as demoralizing, suggesting the director operates under a different standard than rank-and-file employees. The FBI maintains strict standards around alcohol use while on duty, and critics say the normalization of branded liquor as a directorial calling card cuts against that culture — even where no allegation has been made that Mr. Patel consumed alcohol while working. One former agent told The Atlantic he believed agents who failed to accept the bourbon enthusiastically would fear being “polygraphed for loyalty.”
George Hill, a former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst, said the practice reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the bureau’s culture.
“Handing out bottles of liquor at the premier law-enforcement agency — it makes me frightened for the country,” he told The Atlantic. “Standards apply to everything and everyone — especially the boss.”
The bourbon revelations follow a broader pattern of gift controversies surrounding Mr. Patel. A website he co-founded continues to sell branded merchandise — beanies, T-shirts, hoodies, trucker hats and “government gangsters” playing cards — roughly 15 months into his tenure, which began in early 2025. In July, he gave 3D-printed replica revolvers to five senior New Zealand law enforcement and intelligence officials during a visit to Wellington to open the FBI’s first standalone office in the country. The firearms, which met the legal definition of actual guns under New Zealand law, had to be destroyed after officials determined they could be made operable. Mr. Patel’s office said at the time the items were “specially designed to be incapable of firing ammunition.”
Margaret Donovan, an attorney for Steven Jensen, former assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office who filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit after being fired in August, said the pattern reflects a troubling set of priorities.
“There are line agents out there spending their nights and weekends trying to finish warrants, write reports, plan arrests,” Ms. Donovan said. “Yet the FBI Director apparently has the time to design logos, go to hockey games, sit for multi-hour podcast interviews. This is one of the most serious jobs in the country, not a vehicle for self-promotion and branding.”
The Atlantic’s reporting on Mr. Patel’s conduct has drawn a legal response from the director. He filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against the magazine and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick last month after an earlier article alleged he had engaged in excessive drinking and unexplained absences. Mr. Patel called that piece “a lie” and accused the publication of fabricating allegations to drive him from office. The Atlantic said it stands by its reporting and will “vigorously defend” against what it called a meritless lawsuit.
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