Kash Patel Olympics Scandal: FBI Director Caught Chugging Beer in Team USA Locker Room After Flying Government Jet to Milan

FBI Director Kash Patel is at the center of a blazing political firestorm on February 23, 2026. Patel joined the American men's hockey players in the locker room Sunday for a rowdy celebration of winning the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Milan. The scandal has two explosive layers: the use of an FBI government jet to fly to Italy, and a spokesperson who spent days insisting the trip had nothing to do with hockey — only for Patel to be caught on video guzzling beer, spraying it around the locker room, and singing Toby Keith with the gold medal-winning Team USA players.

Kash Patel at the Olympics: The Full Timeline of the Scandal

CBS News reported that Patel flew on a Justice Department plane Thursday for an Air Force base in Italy, after a brief flight from Manassas, Virginia, to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday. Public flight data confirmed the FBI director's plane landed in Italy Thursday evening, local time. His spokesperson immediately pushed back — the FBI's public affairs director raged at reporting that described Patel attending the Olympics as "fake news," writing that the mere suggestion was false even when provided with information to the contrary.

Then the locker room videos emerged on Sunday night. Here is the complete Kash Patel Olympics timeline:

What the Videos Show: Beer, Medals, and Toby Keith

Multiple videos emerged on social media showing Patel in the locker room after the game. In one, he is filmed guzzling from a beer bottle before throwing his hands in the air and pounding a table with his fist. Team USA's Matthew Tkachuk is then seen draping his gold medal around Patel's neck before he joins the winning hockey players in a sing-along to Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue."

Eight former FBI and Justice Department officials sent media outlets a copy of the locker room video, noting it was "drawing outrage" as it rocketed around FBI and DOJ circles. Former FBI Special Agent Michael Feinberg was among the prominent critics, writing: "One of the first things we were taught at Quantico was that there is never a moment in which you are not representing the Bureau."

Kash Patel's Defense: "I Was Invited by My Friends"

Patel did not stay quiet. He posted on X: "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 — greatest country on earth and greatest sport on earth." The FBI simultaneously maintained the Italy trip was a legitimate government mission — citing partner meetings with Italian law enforcement and security officials who had invited the director the previous July, a meeting with Ambassador Fertitta, meetings with Legat staff, and participation in Olympic security briefings.

The Mar-a-Lago Shooting: Patel Was Celebrating While Trump's Residence Was Under Attack

The timing of the Olympics celebration made the political damage dramatically worse. While Patel was in Milan partying in the locker room around the time the gold medal game went into overtime, the U.S. Secret Service shot and killed an armed man who had driven into Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump's resort in Florida. Patel posted on X that the FBI was "dedicating all necessary resources in the investigation" — hours after the attack had already occurred. Critics immediately drew a straight line between the FBI director's absence from the United States during a security incident at the President's own residence and his presence in an Italian locker room drinking beer.

The Hypocrisy Charge: Kash Patel vs. Kash Patel

In 2023, when Patel was a media personality rather than FBI Director, he publicly derided then-FBI Director Christopher Wray for allegedly using an FBI jet for personal reasons, posting: "I'm just saying Chris Wray doesn't need a government funded G5 jet to go to vacations. Maybe we ground that plane. $15,000 every time it takes off. Just a thought." That 2023 post is now circulating widely alongside Sunday's locker room videos — a comparison that has even drawn criticism from Steve Baker, a reporter at the pro-Trump outlet The Blaze.

What Critics Are Pointing to Beyond the Olympics Trip

Critics noted there was a threat at the President's residence, Americans in Mexico were facing major threats by cartel members following El Mencho's killing, and 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie — mother of Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie — remained missing for more than three weeks with no update from the FBI. Patel also has a history of using the FBI's private jet to attend a wrestling event where his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, was performing and to watch Alex Ovechkin break the NHL scoring record alongside Wayne Gretzky. Congressional Democrats are now calling for a formal Inspector General investigation into Patel's use of government aircraft — a review that could have significant consequences for his tenure as FBI Director.