A letter Kash Patel wrote to the Florida Bar in 2005 has resurfaced, revealing that the current FBI director was arrested twice in alcohol-related incidents during his student years, details he himself put in writing and which now sit at the centre of a widening controversy over his fitness to lead the nation's premier law enforcement agency.

The letter,obtained by The Interceptthrough a public records request to the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office, was written at the instruction of Patel's employer as a disclosure required for his Florida Bar application. It recordstwo separate incidents: one involving public intoxication while underage, the other a public urination arrest following a night out at bars in New York.

The document's emergence on 24 April 2026 comes in the middle of a fiercely contested dispute between Patel and The Atlantic magazine, which published allegations of excessive drinking on 17 April 2026 that Patel has called 'fabricated.'

The first incident occurred in 2001 when Patel was a student at the University of Richmond in Virginia. By his own account, he was part of the Richmond Rowdies, a student fan group, and attended a home basketball game to help lead cheers. A school officer escorted him out of the arena.

'Upon exiting the arena,' he wrote in the letter, 'the officer placed me under arrest for public intoxication, as I was not yet of 21 years of age.' Patel said he had consumed two drinks and paid a fine after the incident.

FBI Director Kash Patel disclosed in a 2005 letter that he'd been arrested for public urination. He also described a public intoxication arrest in 2001.These details come as Patel faces scrutiny over alcohol use.My story [email protected]://t.co/scwLtwy0Tb

NBC News, whichseparately reported the 2001 arrestbefore The Intercept's story, confirmed that Patel was found guilty on a misdemeanor charge days after the incident. That conviction is a matter of public record, not merely an allegation.

The second incident took place in 2005, roughly four months before Patel wrote the letter, while he was a law student at Pace University in New York. He described going to 'a few of the local bars' with friends and consuming alcoholic drinks.

Walking home, they made what he called 'a gross deviation from appropriate conduct': attempting to relieve themselves in public. 'Before we could even do so,' he wrote, 'a police cruiser stopped the group. We were then arrested for public urination.' He paid a fine.

FBI Director Kash Patel - who is suing The Atlantic for $250M over drinking allegations - just had a 2005 letter surface showing he disclosed TWO alcohol-related arrests on his Florida Bar application.Public intoxication. Public urination.His own words. His own letter.pic.twitter.com/W00gTkb7Me

Source: International Business Times UK