WASHINGTON — The FBI hit again Thursday at an Related Press report that Director Kash Patel participated in a “VIP snorkel” tour at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii final yr, noting that the journey was a part of a “historic tour to honor heroes who died on the USS Arizona – not a celebration.”
“The AP is making an attempt to spin an invite from the Commanding Normal of Indo Pacom [US Indo-Pacific Command] to a navy base as a celebration or trip, which is so silly,” mentioned FBI spokesman Ben Williamson in an X submit.
“The DoW [Department of War] routinely does these engagements with interagency companions – to incorporate this one – and when he was Chief of workers for [the Pentagon] in Trump 1, Patel provided the identical occasion for a lot of companions that came visiting,” he added.
Patel flew to Hawaii in July 2025 to fulfill with members of the Honolulu area workplace and different federal and native regulation enforcement companions, the company beforehand disclosed in a press launch.
The assembly targeted on “crime developments and threats to the homeland,” the bureau’s launch famous, together with “violent crime initiatives and casework.”
The next month, Patel returned and took part in an underwater tour of the USS Arizona with members of the navy — which the AP reported Thursday was thought-about a “VIP snorkel” by some authorities officers and seen as a possible use of official journey for private leisure.
The members discovered about “the historic significance of the Memorial as the ultimate resting place/tomb for tons of of service members” who died within the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the AP famous.
An FBI spokesperson mentioned the second journey “was a part of the Director’s public nationwide safety engagements final August with counterparts in New Zealand, Australia, our Honolulu Discipline Workplace, and the Division of Conflict.”
The August journey culminated within the opening of the primary FBI area workplace in Wellington, New Zealand.
The founding father of Justice Connection, a “assist group” for Division of Justice personnel fired beneath the second Trump administration, panned the August journey to the AP.
“It suits a sample of Director Patel getting twisted up in unseemly distractions — this time at a web site commemorating the second deadliest assault in U.S. historical past — as a substitute of staying laser-focused on maintaining Individuals secure,” ex-DOJ civil division lawyer Stacey Younger advised the outlet.
The report additionally famous that the US Navy and Nationwide Park Service have allowed navy and authorities officers “to swim on the [Arizona] web site” way back to the Obama administration.
“I’ve not heard of anybody who would object to those visits as they’re very uncommon and there aren’t any survivors of the Arizona left alive,” wrote Deidre Kelley, nationwide president of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, in an e-mail to the AP. “Their youngsters may need some objections however I haven’t heard any.”
The positioning of the Japanese assault, which killed 2,403 Individuals and propelled the US into World Conflict II, will not be open to public snorkeling or diving.
Patel’s journey to Milan, Italy, through the Winter Olympics this previous February equally drew scrutiny from some media retailers after viral video emerged of him celebrating with members of the gold medal-winning US males’s hockey crew and chugging a beer.
He has mentioned that the go to was “purposely deliberate” as a part of an ongoing cybercrime investigation in coordination with Italian regulation enforcement officers.
The FBI director has harshly criticized stories of his journeys overseas in addition to his use of a non-public jet, noting that he pays out of pocket for all private journey — together with visits to Nashville to see his girlfriend, nation music singer Alexis Wilkins — and cited official functions for every tour.
Patel has additionally denounced the “Pretend Information Mafia” reporting on him purportedly slacking on the job — touting an enormous drop in murders, crackdown on drug traffickers and arrests of high-profile fugitives and terrorists, together with the mastermind behind the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan that took the lives of 13 US service members.
“I’ve taken half as many days off as these earlier than me,” Patel mentioned at a DOJ press convention final month. “I’ve taken a 3rd much less trip than these earlier than me.”
“I’m the primary one in; I’m the final one out,” he added.
Patel’s pugilistic stance towards combative press stories included a $250 million lawsuit towards The Atlantic over a narrative headlined, “The FBI Director Is MIA,” which cited nameless sources testifying his “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences.”
He dismissed the reporting in latest testimony earlier than the US Senate as “unequivocally, categorically false.”
