FBI Director Kash Patel admitted in a 2005 letter to the Florida Bar that he was arrested twice in his twenties for alcohol-related incidents—once for public intoxication in 2001 while underage at a college basketball game, and once for public urination in 2005 after leaving bars in New York as a law student. The Intercept obtained the letter through public records request from Patel's Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office personnel file, and the reporting has been corroborated by multiple news outlets. The disclosure adds context to recent allegations from The Atlantic about Patel's current drinking habits, which Patel has denied and sued over for defamation.