FBI Director Kash Patel’s old comments came back to haunt him after he was seen partying with the U.S. team in Italy after his win at the Olympic hockey game.
“I’m just saying Chris Wray doesn’t need a government-funded G5 jet to go on vacation,” he said in 2023, referring to the then-FBI director. “Maybe we ground that plane. $15,000 per flight. Just a thought.”
He has made similar remarks on other occasions.
“Chris Wray used taxpayer money to buy his private jets to fly around the country,” he said on a podcast that same year, according to the Associated Press. “You take away the fleet of fancy novelties from the Department of Justice and they’re going to use them to shuffle executives.”
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Now, however, he’s facing heat for hopping around the country and world in those planes.
Last year, for example, he was criticized for using an FBI plane to watch his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, perform at a wrestling match.
In December, two Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee wrote a letter to Patel asking about a series of flights that included so-called “date nights” and trips to a “luxury hunting resort” called Boondoggle Ranch hosted by a Republican megadonor.
Hockey fan Patel reveled with Team USA at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Sunday as the U.S. beat Canada to win hockey gold.
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Locker room footage showed Patel, wearing a Team USA jersey, dancing with the team in celebration while singing Toby Keith’s “Red, White and Blue Courtesy (Angry Americans).”
Patel posted some pictures on social media:
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He also defended his presence there:
FBI spokesman Ben Williamson said at X that the trip to Italy was not purely personal, but a combination of business and leisure. He said Patel was in Italy to attend “partner meetings with Italian law enforcement and security officials” among other reasons.
He wrote on X that Patel would reimburse the government for any expenses related to his personal portion of the trip.
The FBI director is currently required to travel on government aircraft, even for personal travel, due to “security and communications needs.” For personal travel, executives must reimburse the government—but only for the cost of a regular economy-class ticket on a commercial airline.
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