The FBI Director Who Flies to Concerts, Jet Skis on Your Dime, and Sent 260 Agents to Find the Stolen Election That Wasn’t
“If you have golf, hockey, fishing or hunting and beautiful sights, you’re going to see a lot of me.”
Kash Patel wanted BMWs.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has a long-standing policy of using Chevrolet Suburbans for the director’s transportation. Suburbans are armored, serviceable, domestic-manufactured, and unglamorous. They are the kind of vehicle a federal law enforcement director uses to get from one place to another. They are not, evidently, the kind of vehicle Kash Patel wanted to be seen getting out of.
Patel directed the FBI to purchase several BMW X5 SUVs for the director’s use despite the long-standing policy of purchasing Chevrolet Suburban SUVs. When the story first broke in December, the FBI spokesperson said the move saved the government money but declined to release any documents substantiating that claim. When pressed further, a different explanation emerged: the vehicles had already been purchased by the State Department and were “sitting idle and unused in their warehouse.” This explanation, notably, was not offered when the question was first asked. The FBI had weeks to volunteer it and chose not to, suggesting the initial “cost savings” story was, at minimum, incomplete.
Chuck Grassley, Iowa’s senior senator and Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, demanded Patel explain why the FBI purchased BMW vehicles instead of standard Chevy Suburbans. Grassley, who has consistently defended Patel publicly, was apparently unable to get an explanation through normal channels. He had to write a letter.
The letter also asked about something else.
The Jet
FBI policy requires the director to fly in the FBI jet even when traveling for personal reasons, but Grassley said Congress deserves an accounting of the director’s use of FBI aircraft to conduct an “independent and objective review.” The policy exists because the director of the FBI is a high-value target who requires consistent security protocols regardless of the nature of his travel. It is not a perk. It is a security requirement. The director reimbursing the government for personal flights at the equivalent commercial airfare rate is how the system is supposed to work.
Patel has been widely condemned by Democrats and other critics for using a private FBI plane to fly across the country on personal trips, as well as making the bureau buy a fleet of flashy armored BMWs so he didn’t have to ride around in the Chevrolet Suburbans typically used by FBI directors. Among the personal trips: Patel used an FBI aircraft to attend the Winter Olympics in Milan, where he celebrated with the U.S. men’s hockey team after its gold medal victory. He was filmed drinking beers in the locker room.
The FBI says he reimbursed for personal travel. Democrats say the pattern of mixing personal recreation with official trips makes the reimbursement accounting impossible to verify independently. Durbin and Raskin wrote: “Your lack of judiciousness regarding your personal travel and dubious use of official travel appear to violate not only government ethics law and Department of Justice policy, but also White House directives.”
The Perks
The BMWs and the jet are the parts that got into the Republican letter. The perks are the parts that explain why Patel is sometimes called Keystone Kash.
FBI Director Kash Patel has been demanding special perks from bureau employees during his taxpayer-funded travels throughout the country, including helicopter tours and jet ski excursions, according to whistleblower accounts.
Democrats accused Patel of lavish spending on trips around the world, including a VIP snorkeling experience in Hawaii, a “taxpayer-funded helicopter tour” in South Asia, and other “recreational activities like jet skiing.”
On the Hawaii trip: Patel was allowed by the military to take a VIP snorkeling trip in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, around the wreckage of the USS Arizona, where 1,177 sailors and Marines died during the Japanese attack in 1941. His spokesman defended it as “a historical tour to honor heroes who died.” A snorkeling tour. Of a war grave. On an FBI trip. That his staff insists was not a vacation.
The Democrats also accused Patel of opening an office in New Zealand “in part to justify a sightseeing trip you took there.” This is the move that deserves the most credit for creativity. If you want to visit New Zealand on the government’s dime and need official business to justify it, the solution is elegant: open an FBI office in New Zealand. The office creates the trip. The trip justifies the office. It’s a self-licking ice cream cone of personal enrichment.
Patel’s response to all of this scrutiny, when asked about his jet ski excursions, was to claim his jet ski was “gold plated.” He said this apparently in the belief that it was a defense.
Only Grassley Gets a Response
Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees have raised these concerns repeatedly. They have written letters. They have requested documents. They have asked for briefings.
Rep. Jamie Raskin and Sen. Dick Durbin said they “appreciate Chairman Grassley raising these concerns, which mirror those raised repeatedly by House and Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats.”
They appreciate Grassley raising the concerns because Grassley is apparently the only person Patel responds to. Democrats get silence. Grassley gets a letter back — albeit an unsatisfying one that focused on a detail about a graphic rather than the substance of the questions. Grassley said: “I see Dems r riding my coattails & suddenly showing interest in doing oversight of FBI aircraft.” He meant this as a criticism of Democrats. It is actually a description of the problem: the FBI director has decided that congressional oversight applies only to members of his own party. The other party’s oversight requests are not responded to. This is not how oversight works. It is how a politicized law enforcement agency works.
260 Agents Looking for the Stolen Election
All of the above would be concerning if Patel were simply a lavish spender with poor judgment about optics. But there is something worse happening at the FBI simultaneously, and it puts the jet skis in context.
The FBI is surging resources into what it calls a “priority” investigation related to the 2020 election in Georgia, with intelligence analysts authorized to work overtime, including weekends and holidays. FBI Director Kash Patel is ordering personnel from all field offices to participate, totaling 260 FBI intelligence officials, with each analyst expected to conduct 708 records checks by July 17.
What are they looking for? One official said: “Looking for derogatory information is the short answer. The idea is to build a case. Look at associations between people, look into their social media, their business activity, travel, contact with other investigative subjects.”
Build a case. Not investigate evidence of a crime. Build a case — find the evidence afterward to justify the conclusion predetermined by the president.
The investigation follows an FBI raid in January in which agents seized more than 600 boxes of records from storage in Fulton County, including physical ballots, ballot images, voter rolls, and tabulation materials. When the basis for the search warrant was unsealed, it became clear it relied largely on claims that had previously been debunked, including by Republican-led investigations in Georgia. Joe Biden beat Trump in Georgia by 11,779 votes. The result has been affirmed by multiple audits, multiple certifications, and multiple court rulings, including ones conducted by Republican officials.
Sen. Warner wrote: “The 2020 election has been extensively audited, investigated, and litigated. Multiple courts and state officials have found that there is no evidence to support allegations of substantial fraud that would have changed the election outcome.”
Warner added: “It is alarming that you have chosen to divert these crucial national security resources and personnel to an investigation driven by the personal, political interests of the President.”
The question that nobody in the administration wants to answer is: who is doing the counterespionage work? Who is defending the nation from terrorists? Who is preventing the hacking of America? Who is stopping corporate scams and thievery? Two hundred and sixty intelligence analysts have been pulled from their actual assignments — terrorism, counterintelligence, espionage, organized crime — to run records checks on people connected to a Georgia election that has been audited, litigated, certified, and closed for six years, three months before the midterm elections.
“This diversion of significant FBI resources towards a political investigation threatens the purpose of its mission and endangers Americans,” Warner wrote.
The Complaint He Filed Against Comey and Wray
Here is the part that makes all of this uniquely rich. Kash Patel spent years as one of the most prominent critics of James Comey and Christopher Wray, the two FBI directors who preceded him. He accused them of politicizing the FBI. He accused them of weaponizing law enforcement against political targets. He accused them of diverting Bureau resources to partisan investigations. He wrote a book about it. He went on podcasts about it. He built his entire public profile on the argument that the FBI under Democratic presidents was a corrupt institution that served political masters rather than the law.
He is now diverting 260 agents to find evidence for a debunked conspiracy theory that the president wants proven before the midterms. He is flying to concerts and jet skiing on official trips. He is refusing to respond to Democratic members of Congress while answering Republican inquiries. He is buying BMWs because he found Suburbans insufficiently glamorous. He opened an office in New Zealand so he could visit New Zealand.
You would be hard-pressed to find someone in the Trump administration enjoying their job more than FBI Director Kash Patel.
Kash Patel did not reform the FBI. He became what he said he was fighting. He just made sure this time it works for his team.
The jet ski is apparently gold plated. He said so himself. He seemed to think that was relevant.