Oh Congress is looking into this.
Patel’s “excessive misuse” of the bureau’s aircraft has led to delays with the agency responding to high-profile emergencies, like the
Brown University shooting and
Charlie Kirk’s assassination last year.
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In regard to Kirk’s death during an event at Utah Valley University in September 2025, the whistleblower alleges that the FBI’s shooting reconstruction team was delayed by at least a day because there was a pilot and plane shortage “caused by the Director’s personal flights,”
During the Brown University shooting in December, which killed two and injured nine, Patel was reportedly in South Florida visiting his elderly parents, an FBI official familiar with Patel’s travel told
MS NOW. The outlet reports that the only other available jet had been placed on hold for another FBI team that typically wouldn’t respond to the scene of a mass shooting. Instead, a team had to drive overnight through a snowstorm from Virginia to the Rhode Island university, arriving at 9 a.m. the following morning to immediately process evidence, according to the whistleblower.
Durbin
sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office and the Justice Department’s Inspector General on Tuesday, calling for an investigation into Patel’s hindering of the agency’s ability to conduct critical investigative tasks.
“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,”
This is not the first time Patel’s personal use of FBI aircraft has been called into question. Last year, he raised eyebrows for
using the bureau’s jet to travel to Pennsylvania to see his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, perform at a wrestling event.
