Whistleblower to top Democrat: Kash Patel's FBI jet use delayed response to Kirk assassination, Brown University shooting

WASHINGTON (CN) — Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin on Tuesday urged Congress’ independent watchdog organization and the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate FBI Director Kash Patel’s use of government-owned aircraft, citing whistleblower reports that his use of agency jets hampered its response to several high-profile criminal cases.

Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, accused Patel of “irresponsible joyriding” on aircraft operated by the FBI and Justice Department that he said frustrated senior Trump administrative staff and amounted to “misuse or mismanagement of government resources.”

Patel has repeatedly come under scrutiny for reports that he used FBI aircraft for non-official travel, such as trips to a wrestling match at Penn State University and an excursion to a hunting resort in Texas. But the FBI director found himself under the microscope once again this week after images circulated online showing him celebrating with the U.S. men’s hockey team after their gold medal victory over Canada at the Winter Olympics in Italy.

And in his letter to the Justice Department’s acting inspector general and head of the Government Accountability Office, Durbin said that he’d received “credible” disclosures from a whistleblower which show that Patel’s decisions about the use of government aircraft damaged the FBI’s response to several high-profile criminal probes.

According to the whistleblower report submitted to Durbin’s staff, the FBI team tasked to investigate the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September were delayed by at least one day because of a “plane and pilot shortage” caused by Patel’s personal flights. FBI pilots, the Illinois Democrat explained, could not fly an agency forensic team to the crime scene in Utah until they completed an FAA-mandated rest period.

In December, the whistleblower said, the FBI’s forensics team was unable to fly from Virginia to Rhode Island to assess the scene at Brown University following a spree shooting which killed four people and injured nine. According to the report Durbin reviewed, Patel ordered the FBI hostage rescue team be put on standby to respond to the shooting, giving the tactical team priority access to agency aircraft.

Thanks to the director’s order, the FBI shooting reconstruction team was forced to drive overnight and through a winter storm to reach the scene on time, the whistleblower report said.

Durbin argued that Patel’s “frequent and unapologetic” use of government aircraft for personal travel raised concerns about his compliance with federal regulations and reimbursement requirements for non-mission-related travel.

“Moreover, 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,” the senator added.

Durbin demanded that the Justice Department’s inspector general launch an investigation into whether Patel misused government resources for personal travel and urged review of the whistleblower report submitted to his office — as well as information related to the FBI director’s latest trip to Italy.

“As federal law enforcement is navigating multiple crises … 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,” wrote Durbin.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment.

Patel himself has contested reports that he traveled to Italy purely for personal reasons. In a post on X Monday, the FBI director shared an email from an agency spokesperson to media pointing out that Patel had attended “multiple partner and counterpart meetings” while in the country, including a meeting with the Italian ambassador and security briefings.

The spokesperson added that the Italy trip was planned “months in advance” and that any personal expenses would be reimbursed, saying that it was “not accurate” to characterize the FBI director as using government funds for a personal trip.

Images and video of Patel —  a well-known hockey fan — in the U.S. team’s locker room following their victory over Canada show him holding a beer and cheering alongside the gold medalists.

House Democrats in December demanded that the FBI turn over information related to his use of government aircraft for several personal trips, including his attendance at a Penn State wrestling match where his girlfriend and country singer Alexis Wilkins performed the national anthem. Patel has called criticism of his jet travel “baseless rumors” and “noise from uninformed internet anarchists.”

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