After Devastating Report Raises Questions About Patel’s Fitness For Office, Leader Schumer & Senator Durbin Demand Transparency & Accountability; Call On FBI & DOJ To Preserve[...]

Washington, D.C. - After the Atlantic published a bombshell report that further called into question FBI Director Kash Patel's fitness for office and temperament, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, demanded that the FBI and DOJ preserve all records related to any alleged incidents involving Patel.

This weekend, the Atlantic published a bombshell new report-based on accounts from dozens of witnesses-that exposed shocking new details about FBI Director Kash Patel's troubling history of management failures, heavy drinking, and erratic behavior. Leader Schumer was critical of Patel's nomination from the beginning and urged the Senate not to rubberstamp someone so dangerously unqualified to lead the FBI. Now, in light of the new reporting, Leader Schumer has called for Patel to resign. The American people deserve more transparency and accountability, which is why Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Judiciary Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-IL) are demanding that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) immediately preserve all existing and future records and materials related to the incidents, allegations, and underlying events described in this and similar reporting, as well as any related internal complaints, investigations, or discussions.

"The American people deserve an FBI Director who is temperate, steady, sober, and on the job, not someone who disappears behind locked doors when the country needs him most. For months, there has been increasingly devastating reporting-including this weekend's article in the Atlantic -detailing Director Patel as frequently intoxicated, inexplicably absent, and so out of it and unreachable that his own security detail considered breaching doors to reach him. He has made glaring missteps on high profile investigations and repeatedly jetted off to Las Vegas while urgent work at FBI headquarters was left unattended," the Senators wrote. "If even a fraction of this is true, the person leading our nation's premier law enforcement agency is an unacceptable national security risk, especially during a time of war when national security needs are heighted."

The full text of the letter can be seen here or below.

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Dear Acting Attorney General Blanche:

The American people deserve an FBI Director who is temperate, steady, sober, and on the job, not someone who disappears behind locked doors when the country needs him most. For months, there has been increasingly devastating reporting-including this weekend's article in the Atlantic-detailing Director Patel as frequently intoxicated, inexplicably absent, and so out of it and unreachable that his own security detail considered breaching doors to reach him. He has made glaring missteps on high-profile investigations and repeatedly jetted off to Las Vegas while urgent work at FBI headquarters was left unattended. If even a fraction of this is true, the person leading our nation's premier law-enforcement agency is an unacceptable national-security risk, especially during a time of war when national security needs are heighted.

In light of these grave concerns, this letter demands that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice immediately preserve all existing and future records and materials related to the incidents, allegations, and underlying events described in this and similar reporting and any related internal complaints, investigations, or discussions. At a minimum, this preservation obligation applies from January 20, 2025, to the present and covers:

• Any incident in which Director Patel was reportedly intoxicated, impaired, asleep, unresponsive, unreachable, or otherwise unable to perform the functions of his office.

• Any communications, notes, memoranda, statements, text messages, radio traffic, shift reports, or incident reports by members of Director Patel's security detail or other FBI personnel relating to his condition, availability, or conduct.

• Any calendars, travel records, manifests, reimbursement records, scheduling records, lodging records, flight records, motorcade logs, or other documents reflecting Director Patel's travel, including any trips to Las Vegas or other non-duty travel that overlapped with official responsibilities.

• Any records concerning Director Patel's handling of, participation in, or absence from high-profile investigative or national-security matters referenced in public reporting, including internal deliberations about delays, errors, rescheduling, or reassignment resulting from his conduct or unavailability.

• Any communications among FBI personnel, Department of Justice personnel, White House personnel, or other executive branch officials concerning Director Patel's fitness for duty, use of alcohol, unexplained absences, poor judgment, or reliability.

• Any complaints, referrals, internal ethics inquiries, inspector-general referrals, security concerns, human-resources records, or disciplinary records related to the matters described above.

• Any instructions issued to personnel concerning the creation, alteration, retention, deletion, or non-retention of records relating to these matters.

This preservation request includes all attachments, drafts, handwritten notes, and associated metadata, as well as communications sent through email, text, iMessage, Signal, WhatsApp, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or any similar platform, whether transmitted on government-issued or personal devices used for official business.

Preserving federal records and safeguarding information critical to congressional oversight is a legal obligation that you and all Department employees, including all employees of component agencies and offices, are required to meet. In accordance with federal law, all employees and officials within the Department have a legal responsibility to take measures to preserve, retain, and collect all documents, communications, and other relevant records, including electronic information and metadata that are or may be responsive to any investigation or a congressional inquiry. This includes electronic messages sent using both official and personal accounts or devices and records created using text messages, phone-based message applications, or encryption software. All relevant personnel should be instructed immediately not to delete, destroy, alter, remove, backdate, overwrite, or otherwise compromise potentially responsive records.

Please provide prompt written confirmation that you have issued comprehensive preservation instructions and taken all necessary steps to secure these materials.

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