Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are demanding that FBI Director Kash Patel fill out a screening test used to assess “harmful patterns of alcohol consumption and routinely used by individuals to help identify hazardous drinking behaviors,” following allegations published in an Atlantic article.
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Ina letter to Patel on Tuesday, ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and more than a dozen other Democratssuggested the alleged behavior could harm U.S. national security.
Some of the screening questions, attached to the letter, ask “How many drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when you are drinking,” “How often during the last year have you failed to do what was normally expected from you because of drinking,” and “How often during the last year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because you had been drinking?”
The Democrats also ask that Patel fill out a sworn statement that his answers are true, under penalty of perjury.
Citingthe Atlantic reportabout Patel’s alleged excessive drinking and unexplained absences at the agency, Raskin wrote, “it is no surprise that your purported drinking habits and erratic schedule have had demonstrably disastrous effects on your performance of duties as FBI Director.”
Raskin told Patel that the Atlantic report about his drinking created serious concerns.
“Your inability to control your impulses has reportedly undermined high-stakes criminal investigations.”
But Democrats aren’t in the majority and lack unilateral subpoena power, and it’s not likely Republicans will act if Patel refuses.
Patelsued The Atlanticthis week over the story, with his attorneys calling it a “sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece.” The FBI director is seeking $250 million from the magazine. In a statement on Monday, he said the magazine was “given the truth before they published, and they chose to print falsehoods anyway.”
Source: Drudge Report
