May 12 (UPI) -- FBI Director Kash Patel, under fire for media accounts of alleged excessive drinking, vowed during a heated exchange at a Senate hearing Tuesday to take a test for alcohol abuse if his questioner did as well.
Patel, under heated questioning from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., during a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Trump administration's 2027 budget request, pledged to take an Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test as long as Hollen also did.
"Let's go, side by side," the FBI chief said after voicing accusations of his own about an incident in which Van Hollen was purported to be shown drinking margaritas on the taxpayer's tab during a visit to El Salvador.
The testy back-and-forth came as Patel is defending himself against allegations contained in an April 17 article in The Atlantic in which nine unnamed current and former FBI officials spoke of Patel drinking to the point of obvious intoxication, including in front of White House officials, and of his security detail having difficulty waking him at times, apparently because he was intoxicated.
The article also quoted sources saying FBI agents had to request breaching equipment to reach him behind locked doors while intoxicated.
