House Judiciary Democrats open investigation into reports Kash Patel drank on the job

A Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee said the panel has opened an investigation into reports that Kash Patel drank while on the job and that the behavior has interfered with his ability to perform official duties.

The committee member, speaking to the matter, cited a recent Atlantic magazine article and other reports and said the allegations — including accounts that Patel "goes missing" and "passes out drunk" — raise national security and public safety concerns. "This is a matter of national security. This is a matter of public safety," the committee member said.

The speaker said the committee sent Patel the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, the 10-question AUDIT questionnaire used in many workplaces, and asked him to return it to the House Judiciary Committee. "Fill out this form, get it back to the House Judiciary Committee, and if he doesn't do it, we're asking uh Chairman Jordan to go ahead and subpoena him to bring him in so we can get to the bottom of this," the committee member said.

The remarks also referenced an earlier incident the speaker described as Patel being seen "chugging beers with the USA Olympic team in Italy," which the speaker contrasted with the more recent Atlantic report. The transcript contains no record of a response from Patel, any formal committee vote, or additional staff testimony in this excerpt. The committee member characterized the inquiry as an active investigation; no formal subpoena was recorded in the transcript itself.

The committee's next public steps were not specified in the transcript excerpt.