FBI director's jet use delayed Brown response, whistleblower says

Myles Miller, Bloomberg News on Feb 24, 2026

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A whistleblower told Democrats on the Senate Judiciary committee that FBI agents had to drive through a winter storm overnight from Quantico, Virginia, to Providence, Rhode Island, to process evidence at a mass shooting scene because Director Kash Patel’s personal travel had left the bureau without an available plane.

That disclosure is among several in a letter the panel’s ranking member Dick Durbin sent Tuesday to federal watchdogs, calling for an investigation into Patel’s use of government aircraft.

The letter comes days after Patel was seen celebrating with the gold medal-winning U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team in Italy on Sunday, a trip that drew fresh criticism after an armed intruder was fatally shot attempting to breach President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate the same weekend.

Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, cited whistleblower accounts alleging that Patel’s travel had drained the FBI’s pool of available planes and pilots, delaying its shooting reconstruction team from flying to Utah in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Kirk murder. FAA rules governing pilot rest periods meant the team couldn’t depart until the following day, according to the letter.

At Brown University, a separate whistleblower alleged Patel compounded the problem by ordering the Hostage Rescue Team — the bureau’s elite counterterrorism unit — placed on standby after a December shooting on campus, freezing aircraft for other FBI units.

The FBI denied both accounts. Spokesman Ben Williamson called the Brown allegation “false and a ridiculous story to begin with,” saying the Boston Field Office’s Evidence Response Team arrived within two hours of the shooting. He noted the case began as a state-led homicide investigation with the FBI in an assisting role. On the Kirk allegation, Williamson said Patel was in Washington on Sept. 10 and in New York the next day for Sept. 11 commemorations — not personal travel — calling that claim “even more egregious.”

The FBI said directors are designated “required use travelers” under federal regulations and are barred from flying commercial aircraft because they must maintain access to secure communications in emergencies.

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