Kash Patel is starting to feel the hangover from his Italian Olympic vacation.
The FBI director shared an opinion article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal on X on Monday, patting himself on the back for a reported decline in violent crime over the past four years. However, he was met with a wave of criticism targeting his boozy partying with the USA Olympic hockey team over the weekend.
“‘Violent crime is cratering in the United States, according to national statistics. Last year appears to have produced the sharpest decline ever for homicides,’” Patel, 45, wrote, quoting the Review-Journal editorial. ”Leadership matters."
Users in the replies did not mince words about the Trump appointee’s lack of professionalism in the wake of his trip to the Milano Cortina Winter Games, which the FBI specified was “not a personal trip.”
“You should be working in [sic] the Epstein files but no...” one X user said, sharing a photo of Patel from Sunday chugging a beer in a Team USA shirt. “A taxpayer vacation to get drunk with hockey players.”
“This is you, kash?” wrote another user who shared a video of the FBI director’s spirited locker room celebration.
Others commented on Patel’s hypocrisy regarding the agency’s crackdown on criminals, notably referring to their lack of action in prosecuting co-conspirators of convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“Whatever you do, just don’t arrest any pedos,” one X user wrote in reply. “Wouldn’t want you guys losing any voters.”
“Good. Now get on to arresting the criminals that walk the halls of government,” said another.
“Patting yourself on the back and celebrating (taking the credit) the wins of local PD’s have become a full time job for you,” another user said, calling out Patel’s propensity to take credit for others’ accomplishments. “You should refund the people who bought your book. You look like a damn fool and are constantly embarrassing us.”
When reached for comment, the FBI told the Daily Beast: “We don’t have anything to add to the director’s social media posts.”
Hockey-head Patel was pictured chugging beer and partying with the gold medal-winning Team USA in their locker room on Sunday, which “drew outrage” from some senior FBI and DOJ officials, according to reporting from MS NOW.
“For the very concerned media—yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys,” Patel wrote on X just before 2 a.m. local time. “Greatest country on earth and greatest sport on earth. 👊🏼🏒”
The supposedly inebriated FBI director also spoke like a sailor with President Donald Trump, who famously does not drink alcohol, as video from Sunday’s locker room appearance showed.
“You got it, Kash?” the president asked while speaking with the U.S. Olympians, asking the FBI head to ensure the team attends Tuesday’s State of the Union. “I’m on it, I’m f--king on it,” Patel replied.
Patel has frequently come under scrutiny for his personal use of FBI resources, including using the agency’s fleet of private jets to visit his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins.
