Director Kash Patel wore an FBI jacket at an October press conference in New York. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
WASHINGTON -- Since J. Edgar Hoover took the reins a century ago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has sought to present itself as the Ivy League of law enforcement, where agents wear suits and ties -- and keep a low profile.
Kash Patel's ultracasual style and attraction to the spotlight are chipping away at that image.
Patel, who just passed the one-year mark as FBI director, effectively kicked off his second year with a four-day, taxpayer-funded trip to Italy, where he watched the U.S. men's hockey team win Olympic gold over Canada. A video of him in the locker room afterward celebrating and drinking beer with the players went viral.
It unnerved some in the button-down workforce who voiced concern that the party-boy image could strain partnerships with other law-enforcement agencies and make bureau leadership seem weak in the eyes of foreign adversaries. Some current and former agents said they at first questioned whether the video had been created by artificial intelligence.
Patel, an avid hockey fan, has defended the trip, arguing that the timing was coincidental with meetings he had been planning to attend with the FBI's European counterparts. An FBI spokesman told The Wall Street Journal that Patel had more than eight "work events" in Italy but declined to say how Patel obtained his seat in the arena or how much, if anything, he paid for it.
"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," Patel said on his X account.
While Patel was in Italy, the FBI back home was being drawn further into the investigation of the disappearance of "Today" co-anchor Savannah Guthrie's mother in Arizona; investigating an armed man who was shot and killed after breaching the secure perimeter at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida; and tracking an explosion of violence in Mexico after its military killed a powerful cartel boss.
A former FBI agent, Daniel Brunner, said the Mexico troubles put American citizens at risk and should have demanded Patel's attention. "He's the director of the FBI, so he should be at his post," he said. The FBI spokesman said Patel was "briefed and engaged."
Trump has privately questioned Patel's Olympic appearance, according to a person familiar with the matter). Still, the president has been outwardly supportive of Patel, including for purging FBI employees who investigated Trump or appeared hostile to conservatives.
After Patel returned to headquarters from Italy, he ousted at least 10 FBI employees, some of them veteran agents, who worked on the investigation of Trump's retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, part of a continued push to remake the agency in Trump's image. Investigations that led to the firings had been ongoing for months, the FBI spokesman said.
Past FBI directors have shown a near-reverence for the bureau's processes and traditions. Robert Mueller, who ran the FBI from 2001 to 2013, was known to adhere to Hoover's G-man dress code of white shirts and dark suits, admonishing agents who wore something more colorful. Mueller, who served as a Marine, was something of an enigma even to aides and was rarely spotted on the social circuit. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft nicknamed him "Square Jaw McGraw."
Patel, 46, has embraced his public persona -- and shown a comfort in blending professional and personal lines.
The FBI director is required by law to take the bureau's private plane instead of commercial flights for security reasons. Last year he flew in it to a Texas hunting resort called the Boondoggle Ranch and to attend a wrestling event at which his girlfriend, a country and western singer, performed, and then to her home in Nashville, Tenn. He has been spotted at parties and sporting events and is such a huge fan of Ultimate Fighting Championship cage fighting that he once proposed a partnership with the FBI.
Last week, Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) said a whistleblower had alleged that a specialized FBI team was unable to respond quickly to a mass shooting at Brown University in 2025 because Patel was using an FBI jet. The FBI spokesman recently called that account "ridiculous" and said the bureau provided resources in a timely manner to what was initially a homicide investigation led by state authorities.
"There would not be a situation where the FBI delayed or couldn't send resources because of Director travel, especially in this case,"
the spokesman said on X.
Patel has shown up to events in hooded sweatshirts and sneakers and sometimes wears a badge despite not being a special agent.
His supporters said he is trying to present himself as down-to-earth and accessible to the workforce. He told senior leadership in one of his first meetings that he had no plans to wear a suit and tie and didn't expect agents to do so either.
"I like my FBI director being a real person; I like the fact that he drinks beer; I like the fact that he wants to celebrate with our gold medal hockey team,"
said Jay Town, a U.S. attorney during Trump's first administration. "He was very relatable especially in that moment; that helps trust and confidence people have in bureau."