Kash Patel has been savaged for rocking a pair of bespoke sneakers bearing his personal brand at an FBI training event as the hunt for Nancy Guthrie stretches into its seventh week.
The embattled FBI director, 46, attended a two-day joint training session with UFC fighters at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, over the weekend—an event that Patel had billed as “a tremendous opportunity for our FBI agents to learn and train with some of the greatest athletes on earth.”
ProPublica reporter William Turton shared photographs of Patel’s footwear, revealing a pair of customized black, white, and yellow Nike low-tops adorned with personal touches.
They included the number 9, marking his status as the bureau’s ninth director, and a yellow Punisher skull borrowed from the Marvel Comics vigilante who metes out lethal justice outside the law.
Also on there was his personal logo, “K$H,” on the side panel, and the FBI’s own motto—“Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity”—scrolled across the heels. The shoes matched the color scheme of his black UFC hat and UFC-FBI hoodie.
Former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin, who has become one of the bureau’s most vocal critics, did not mince words in his response to Turton’s post, quipping that the bureau is now led by “a 19 year old virgin trapped in a 46 year old” man’s body.
A LinkedIn post from James Swann of the U.S. Air Force captured another dimension of Patel’s weekend. He posted a photo showing the director sitting at a table with a Sharpie, signing color photographs of himself for attendees. Swann is pictured clutching one of his own. “Super cool dude, down to earth and didn’t rush anyone away,” Swann wrote of Patel.
The optics drew criticism beyond Seraphin. On X, users pointed out that Patel was busy dispensing signed headshots as the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, 84—mother of "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie—remained unsolved.
Guthrie was last seen at her home in Tucson, Arizona, on Jan. 31. No suspects have been named. Her family has posted a $1 million reward, with the FBI itself offering up to $100,000 for information leading to her recovery “and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance.”
It is the latest chapter in a string of stunts that have earned Patel the nickname “Keystone Kash” among critics, coined by the Beast as a reference to the hapless Keystone Cops from the era of silent cinema, after he made a series of crimefighting flubs.
They included Patel allegedly refusing to disembark from his jet during a major investigation until agents fetched him a medium-sized FBI windbreaker with the right patches on the sleeve. He was also accused of torpedoing a sensitive Five Eyes gathering in the U.K., reportedly pushing for briefings poolside on jet skis and at soccer matches.
He was also said to have used the bureau’s $60 million jet as a personal shuttle to attend concerts by his country-singer girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, 27, while deploying FBI SWAT protection around her shows.
Last month, video emerged of him celebrating in an Olympic locker room and drinking beer with the U.S. men’s hockey team following their gold-medal win over Canada in Milan, Italy—a trip his office insisted was official business, funded by taxpayers.
A 115-page dossier compiled by active and retired agents described him as “in over his head,” the FBI as a “rudderless ship,” and urged Patel to “stop talking, stop posing, and just be professional.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the FBI for comment.
