FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal use of the bureau jet delayed the FBI’s response to at least two major investigations — including the mass shooting at Brown University and the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk — according to new whistleblower disclosures shared with Congress this week.
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, revealed the allegations in a letter sent Tuesday to the Government Accountability Office and the Justice Department’s inspector general.
Durbin is requesting a formal investigation into what he called Patel’s “irresponsible joyriding” on taxpayer-funded bureau jet.
The timing of the revelations could not be worse for Patel.
The whistleblower disclosures surfaced just days after the FBI director was spotted in Milan, Italy, chugging beer in the locker room with the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team following their gold medal win over Canada — a trip he took on the FBI’s Gulfstream jet.
Kash Patel chugging beer in locker room with men’s hockey team in Italy
Two Investigations, Two Delays
The whistleblower’s account paints a troubling picture of an FBI director whose travel habits have real consequences for the bureau’s ability to do its job.
In the first case, after the murder of Charlie Kirk in Utah on September 10, 2025, the FBI’s shooting reconstruction team was asked to fly to the scene to aid the investigation and process evidence.
But according to the whistleblower, the team’s deployment was delayed by at least a full day because Patel’s personal flights had created a plane and pilot shortage.
Federal Aviation Administration rules require mandatory rest periods for pilots after they hit certain flight time thresholds — and the pilots who had been flying Patel around were grounded by those limits.
The second case involves the mass shooting at Brown University on December 13, 2025, which left two students dead and others injured. The FBI’s shooting reconstruction team was prepared to fly from Richmond, Virginia, to Providence, Rhode Island, to process the crime scene immediately.
But there was a problem: Patel had taken one of the FBI’s two available jets to South Florida for personal travel.
To make matters worse, Patel then ordered the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team — a specialized counterterrorism unit typically reserved for extreme situations like hostage standoffs — to be on standby for the Brown shooting.
This was a puzzling decision for several reasons. The Boston and New York field offices both maintain enhanced SWAT teams that were closer, better positioned, and already aware of the situation.
The order was never even communicated to the Hostage Rescue Team itself, and it froze the remaining aircraft from being used by any other FBI team until Patel lifted the hold.
The result? The FBI evidence response team had to pile into vehicles and drive through the night, through a winter storm, from Quantico, Virginia, to Providence, Rhode Island — arriving at 9:00 a.m. the next morning to begin processing evidence that could have been examined hours earlier.
“If You Have Golf, Hockey, Fishing, or Hunting — You’re Going to See a Lot of Me”
The whistleblower also shared a revealing detail about the culture Patel has established at the bureau.
According to a credible source who spoke to Durbin’s staff, Patel told FBI field office personnel during a meeting last year: “If you have golf, hockey, fishing, or hunting and beautiful sights, you’re going to see a lot of me.”
That comment tracks with a pattern of personal travel that has frustrated not only FBI agents but also senior White House and Department of Justice staff, according to Durbin’s letter.
The trips have included flights to a pro wrestling event in Pennsylvania where Patel’s country singer girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, performed the national anthem, as well as the recent trip to the Winter Olympics in Milan.
The hypocrisy is hard to ignore. Before becoming FBI director, Patel publicly criticized his predecessor Christopher Wray for using the same government jet.
In a 2023 interview, Patel said: “Chris Wray doesn’t need a government-funded G5 jet to go to vacation.
Maybe we ground that plane. $15,000 every time it takes off.”
Now Patel is the one doing the flying — and unlike Wray, his travel appears to be directly interfering with FBI operations.
The FBI’s Response
FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson pushed back on the allegations, calling Durbin’s claims about the Brown University shooting “totally false” and labeling the Charlie Kirk allegation “even more egregious.”
Williamson said Patel was in Washington on September 10 and in New York the next day for 9/11 ceremonies — though the whistleblower’s complaint focuses on the pilot shortage created by Patel’s broader pattern of travel, not the specific day of the Kirk killing.
On the Brown shooting, Williamson noted it was initially a state-led investigation and said the FBI would not have delayed resources because of the director’s travel.
“If the Director happens to be out of town, he always offers the plane if needed anyway — and he did so here. It wasn’t needed,” Williamson wrote on social media.
But the whistleblower’s account tells a different story — one where agents were driving through snowstorms because the planes were unavailable, and where time-sensitive investigations lost precious hours.
What Comes Next
Durbin is asking the GAO to incorporate these new allegations into its ongoing review of FBI aircraft use, which he first requested back in May 2025.
He is also requesting that the DOJ inspector general open a formal investigation.
The senator concluded his letter with a pointed observation: “The FBI cannot afford to have its resources further stretched by a director who views its staff and aircraft as a means to support his jet-setting lifestyle.”
It is also worth noting that Patel’s latest trip to Italy happened on the same weekend an armed man carrying a gas can and a shotgun attempted to breach the perimeter of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
The intruder was killed on the scene by law enforcement — but the nation’s top law enforcement officer was an ocean away, celebrating a hockey game.
The American people deserve an FBI director who treats the bureau’s resources with the seriousness they demand.
When mass shootings happen and crime scenes need processing, the FBI jet should not be parked at a hockey arena or a country music concert.
The whistleblower’s allegations suggest a pattern of misplaced priorities that goes beyond bad optics — it is actively undermining the FBI’s mission to protect the public.
Caricature of Kash Patel is the work of DonkeyHotey on Flickr.
