FBI Director Kash Patel may be the next senior official to leave the Trump administration, according to a White House source cited in a new Politico report. The document indicates growing internal frustration within the federal agency.Politico’s Dash Burns reports that pressure is mounting around Patel’s position, with one unnamed official suggesting his time in office may be limited. “A senior White House official told me that Kash Patel is likely to be the next Cabinet-level official to resign,” Burns wrote on X. “It’s only a matter of time,” the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss this sensitive matter, told me.The same source said concerns within the administration include negative coverage surrounding Patel, which they described as damaging the image of a senior official.Burns added: “There are several reasons, the official said, but the main one is the number of negative stories that centered on Patel “not a good look for a Cabinet secretary” and that Trump was tired of the level of distraction.The White House has not publicly confirmed any move related to Patel.The report comes at a time when Patel is already facing legal and media scrutiny. He filed a $250 million defamation suit against The Atlantic after a story by journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick.
The article claimed that Patel consumed alcohol excessively and caused disturbance to his office colleagues, and that he often missed important meetings. In one case, Patel had difficulty accessing the FBI’s computer system and mistakenly believed he had been fired by President Donald Trump.The Atlantic rejected the allegations, saying: “We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this baseless lawsuit.”Separate reporting by The Intercept has also drawn attention to Patel’s past, referring to a 2005 disclosure letter submitted to the Florida Bar. The file listed two previous arrests, one for public drunkenness when he was an underage college student, and the other for public urination while he was studying law in New York.Patel said in the letter that the college incident occurred after he was pulled out of a basketball game and was later arrested by police.
The second incident occurred during a night out with friends, and ended in what he called a “serious deviation from appropriate behavior,” resulting in a fine for public urination.“We went to a few local bars and had some alcoholic drinks,” he said. “At the end of the night, we decided to walk home. In a blatant deviation from appropriate behavior, we tried to relieve our bladders while walking home.”The resurfacing of these disclosures has come alongside renewed scrutiny of Patel’s conduct in office. Earlier this year, he was photographed drinking beer with the US men’s Olympic hockey team in Milan after they won the gold medal, an incident he defended as an expression of patriotic pride.
