FBI Whistleblower Allegations of Parel's Jet-Setting Lifestyle Challenges Congressional Trumpers

Feb 26, 2026 07:16 PM EST, Thu

FBI whistleblower allegations against Patel create a test for congressional Republicans

GOP lawmakers were willing to defend the FBI director’s antics in Milan, but are they also willing to defend allegations of systemic abuses?

Feb. 25, 2026, 11:22 AM EST By Steve Benen

Long before FBI Director Kash Patel was filmed partying with the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team after they won the gold, he was facing months’ worth of accusations that he had misused FBI jets for personal reasons. But the focus on the former podcast personality’s jet-setting habits took on greater significance after he flew to Milan and celebrated at taxpayers’ expense.

To be sure, an FBI spokesperson insisted to MS NOW last week that Patel visited Italy for a series of business meetings, not leisure, which justified his use of a bureau jet. That was a difficult claim to take seriously, made worse when someone leaked the director’s internal schedule to The New York Times.

Despite similar allegations leading to the ouster of a previous FBI director in 1993, congressional Republicans have appeared eager to lend their support to Patel in the wake of his latest controversy. Sen. Ted Cruz (T-TX) and Rep. Jim Jordan (T-OH4), for example, separately endorsed the director’s antics this week, seemingly indifferent to questions about the possible misuse of public resources.

Their support, however, came before the latest reporting from MS NOW about related allegations from an FBI whistleblower. From the report:

Agents with the FBI’s elite evidence response team were delayed in reaching the scene of a mass shooting at Brown University in December because there was no FBI plane available to take them to Rhode Island, according to three sources and a whistleblower’s account newly provided to Congress.

FBI Director Kash Patel was in south Florida at the time with one of the FBI’s two available jets and had given an order to hold the other for another team that would not normally respond to the scene, according to the whistleblower and the sources. The evidence response team instead had to drive through the night amid a snowstorm to reach the university in Providence, Rhode Island, by 9 o’clock the next morning, according to the whistleblower’s account.

The whistleblower’s account was obtained by Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois (D-IL), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who urged the Government Accountability Office and the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate Patel’s alleged abuses.

“Through additional, credible whistleblower disclosures, I have learned how the Director’s decisions related to DOJ or FBI-controlled aircraft have negatively impacted high-profile criminal investigations,” Durbin wrote.

The retiring Illinois senator added that a “credible source” notified Senate staffers that during a meeting last year, Patel told FBI field office personnel, “If you have golf, hockey, fishing, or hunting and beautiful sights, you’re going to see a lot of me.”

The question for GOP lawmakers is simple: You were willing to defend Patel’s antics in Milan, but are you also willing to defend allegations of systemic abuses?

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

BREAKING: Whistleblower says Kash Patel’s use of FBI planes has harmed investigations

Feb 24, 2026 #whistleblower #FBI #kashpatel

MS NOW exclusively reports that a whistleblower has told Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) that FBI Director Kash Patel’s use of his government jet has harmed investigations. This includes delaying the Brown University shooting response. MS NOW Senior Investigative Reporter Carol Leonnig joins Katy Tur with more details.

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