FBI chief shown in raucous locker room celebration during Olympics trip

FBI Director Kash Patel, during what his spokesman said was an official trip to Milan for security meetings, was filmed guzzling from a beer bottle and celebrating in the locker room with U.S. Olympic hockey players Sunday after they won the gold-medal game.

Several videos emerged on social media showing Patel in the locker room after the game, but one in particular drew outrage from current and former FBI agents. It depicted Patel pouring what appeared to be beer down his throat, spraying some of it in the air and screaming in celebration as a player put a gold medal around his neck.

Eight former FBI and Justice Department officials sent MS NOW a copy of the video, which they said was drawing outrage as it rocketed around FBI and DOJ circles.

Patel is an avid hockey fan, and nothing in the videos is unusual for a post-game celebration after a victory of this magnitude. But his presence in the locker room drew attention because Patel flew to Milan on the FBI’s private jet, and his spokesman denounced reporting by MS NOW and other outlets that he was flying to Milan to watch the men’s hockey games at the Olympics.

Patel posted to his personal X account late Sunday: “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.”

FBI spokesman Ben Williamson told MS NOW on Thursday that Patel was going to Milan for a series of business meetings, and it was unfair to describe the trip as having to do with hockey or pleasure.

“Your rag outlet wrote that he went to hang out at the Olympics on the taxpayer dime – even when provided information that your theory was false,” Williamson posed Saturday on X. He did not respond to a request for comment about the video.

Patel posted a photo showing him in the post-game locker room as he congratulated the U.S. team on the win.