On multiple occasions in the past year, members of his security detail had difficulty waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated, according to information supplied to Justice Department and White House officials. A request for “breaching equipment”—normally used by SWAT and hostage-rescue teams to quickly gain entry into buildings—was made last year because Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors, according to multiple people familiar with the request.
The thumbnail made him look like a chad, but when you see the large pic, there is desperation in his eyes and pursed lips. The madness of a trapped animal.
He’s been like that ever since that famous press conference at which it was obvious he’d just seen the reality of the Epstein Files, and realised what his boss actually was, and that he now knew too much for Trump to be comfortable. The fear, the pale shaking terror. It never left him.
Now he’s just drowning the memories in booze, trying to forget the faces of the dead girls, living it up before the regime falls and he faces charges, or Trump decides to silence him, or his own liver takes pity on him. The fear is his master.
It’s ironic, because the actual likely outcome is no consequences will fall on him. Nobody gets punished these days. Even if the next admin somehow miraculously decides to actually punish the guilty, he’s far down the list, and silence will protect him.