A top White House official told Politico on Saturday that it is “only a matter of time” before Kash Patel gets the boot, saying President Trump is fed up with seeing the FBI director in headlines tied to scandal. The official said those headlines are “not a good look for a Cabinet secretary.”
The warning lands after Patel spent the past several days talking up his crime-fighting at the FBI and trying to push back on a string of damaging reports. On Monday, he filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic after the magazine’s April 17 report said current and former officials described the bureau as in panic mode over his alleged erratic behavior and heavy drinking.
That report said colleagues were alarmed by Patel’s behavior and that unexplained absences and drinking raised fears about possible national security fallout. It also said he had been filmed drinking in the locker room of the USA men’s hockey team after its gold medal win at the Milan Olympics in February. Patel has called the accusations “hit piece lies.”
The criticism has not come from one direction. On April 22, John Sullivan told podcast The Daily that Patel’s videos looked “completely childish,” after mocking clips of the FBI chief at Quantico. He said the bureau’s leader was presenting the organization in a juvenile way. The same day, reported that the FBI had sought to investigate a reporter who wrote about Patel’s girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, before Justice Department officials stopped the effort.
Another awkward detail resurfaced this month when The Intercept reported that Patel disclosed two prior alcohol-related arrests to the Florida Bar in 2005, including one involving public urination. In response to the latest round of criticism, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Patel remains a “critical player” on the Trump team. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The broader backdrop is a White House already juggling the fallout from a series of negative Patel reports while Trump has also been weighing a wider Cabinet shakeup after firing Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi and Lori Chavez-DeRemer. With current polls described as unfavorable for Trump, the White House has little appetite for another headline about an official who keeps landing in the middle of one.
