FBI director joins US men’s hockey team in locker room celebration of Olympic gold medal

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Kash Patel joined the American men’s hockey players in the locker room Sunday for a rowdy celebration of winning the gold medal in the Winter Olympics.

While he was in Milan, 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. Hours later, around the time the game against Canada was headed into overtime, Patel posted on X that the FBI was “dedicating all necessary resources in the investigation.”

Videos shared on social media showed a pumped-up Patel drinking beer from a bottle and spraying the rest around the locker room. After one of the players draped his gold medal around Patel’s neck, he joined the players as they jumped up and down.

“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, the spokeswoman for former Attorney General Merrick Garland said on X.

Patel responded to the criticism by posting that he 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.”

The FBI director had defended his official trip to Italy by saying he was going to meet with Italian law enforcement officials and Americans helping to provide security at the Olympics. He 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.