Whistleblower documents released by Sen. Dick Durbin on Tuesday allege that agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation were delayed in arriving to the scenes of several major, headline-grabbing crime scenes recently due to FBI Director Kash Patel’s prolific use of the bureau’s private jets.
Durbin said in a statement the documents were provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee after Patel used the FBI’s aircraft to travel to Milan over the weekend to attend meetings with U.S. personnel assisting with Olympic security and attend the men’s hockey final, which the U.S. won 2-1 in an overtime thriller.
“Since his confirmation as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel has seemingly engaged in what amounts to irresponsible joyriding on DOJ and FBI-operated aircraft at the expense of the American taxpayer and to the detriment of ongoing Bureau operations,” Durbin, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in the statement.
In a letter sent to the Government Accountability Office and Justice Department’s inspector general on Tuesday, Durbin said Patel’s use of the agency’s jets left the FBI’s evidence response team without adequate transportation to the scene of a mass shooting at Brown University in December.
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According to the whistleblower, Patel had acquired one of the agency’s two available aircrafts to travel to south Florida and held the other plane for a team not normally required to respond to the scene. Another team was also a day late in responding to the scene of Charlie Kirk’s assassination last year “because of a Bureau plane and pilot shortage caused by the Director’s personal flights.”
“The information provided by credible whistleblowers makes it clear that not only are
the Director’s misuse and mismanagement of these aircraft problematic to taxpayers, they
materially harm the mission of the very agency he has sworn to lead,” Durbin wrote in the letter.
FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson pushed back against the whistleblower disclosures on Tuesday, saying Patel always ensures the agency has an aircraft to use when needed.
“If the Director happens to be out of town, he always offers the plane if needed anyway — and did so here,” Williamson said. “It wasn’t needed.”
On Sunday while Patel was in Milan, the FBI assumed leadership over the investigation into a man who was shot and killed while trying to enter Mar-a-lago with a firearm. Additionally, the agency is heading the search operation for Nancy Guthrie, which has entered its fourth week.
An FBI official told MSNOW that Patel was using the FBI jet in December, the weekend of the Brown shooting, to visit his elderly parents at an undisclosed location. MSNOW reviewed property records that showed Patel’s parents live in south Florida.
Patel has come under scrutiny for his use of FBI aircraft since assuming his role. In his letter to the GAO on Tuesday, Durbin asked for an immediate investigation into the misuse of government property.
“Kash Patel went to hang out at the Olympics on the taxpayer dime. It’s irresponsible joyriding and a complete waste of our money. He should reimburse you,” Durbin posted to X. “I’m investigating.”
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