FBI Director Kash Patel chugged beer and sprayed it over members of the American men’s hockey team following their gold medal win in Italy on Sunday — while at home the agency was navigating multiple urgent issues including the Secret Service shooting dead an armed man who entered President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
Patel joined the rowdy celebrations following the historic 2-1 victory over Canada at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. It was the first time in 46 years — since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” — the men’s team has taken home the gold.
The FBI head was in the locker room in Milan downing a beer and spraying the rest over team members, according to a video posted online by ProPublica reporter William Turton, who said it was sent to him by "a source."
In a separate video, Patel appears to take a call from Trump in which the president is heard inviting the team to the State of the Union address Tuesday.
“Unbelievable. You were all unbelievable. That team is pretty good you played,” a voice that appears to be Trump’s tells the locker room on speakerphone.
The footage has been verified by NBC News and Patel acknowledged in a statement he was there.
The video shows Patel banging on a table before a gold medal is placed around his neck by someone in the room. He then joined the team in jumping up and down and screaming the lyrics to “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” by the late Toby Keith.
“There was a threat at the president’s residence at MAL, Americans in Mexico are facing major threats by cartel members, Nancy Guthrie is still missing, and our FBI Director thinks he’s a frat bro?!,” Xochitl Hinojosa, a spokeswoman for ex-Attorney General Merrick Garland, wrote on X.
That referred to the Mar-a-Lago intrusion, which happened while Trump was in the White House rather than Florida; violence that erupted in Mexico after its army killed the country’s most wanted drug lord; and the weekslong search for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “TODAY” co-host Savannah Guthrie.
Former FBI special agent Michael Feinberg was another prominent critic of the scenes in Italy.
“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,” he wrote on the social media platform Bluesky.
Patel took to X to defend himself.
“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,” he wrote.
Asked for additional comment by email, the FBI referred NBC News to Patel's statement on X.
Patel said he was not just going to Italy for the Games, but rather traveling to meet Italian law enforcement counterparts, as well as American agencies helping provide security at the event.
Protests erupted in Italy after it emerged that ICE would play a role in these Games, as it has done on these and other large international events in the past.
Patel posted pictures this week of his visit to the Milan Joint Operations Center, which he said was charged with protecting the security of American athletes and all those who traveled to Milan for the Winter Games. He also posted a photo of his meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Italy.
Last year, a dozen current and former FBI and Justice Department officials told NBC News that Patel’s relaxed briefing schedule had raised concerns he was not taking the job seriously enough.
Meanwhile, he has drawn attention for regularly appearing with celebrities at professional sporting events around the country, according to flight logs and social media posts.
