Report: Kash Patel Was Desperate to Snorkel in a Graveyard
Source: The New Republic · Bias: Left
Summary
Kash Patel can’t stop living the good life.The FBI director reportedly went on a VIP snorkeling trip while on a visit to Hawaii last summer that the bureau stressed was not a vacation. Patel was officially in the state to tour the FBI’s Honolulu branch and meet with local law enforcement, or at least that’s what the bureau’s news releases said.But the Associated Press obtained government emails showing that Patel took part in the snorkeling excursion, coordinated by the military, near the USS Arizona, which was sunk in the World War II attack on Pearl Harbor. That wasn’t mentioned in the bureau’s public releases, nor was Patel’s return to Hawaii for two days after initially visiting the state.Snorkeling and diving are usually prohibited around the sunken battleship, with rare exceptions. It’s essentially a military cemetery, as over 900 sailors and Marines died in the 1941 attack by Japan. Most dives either are done by Marine archaeologists or crews from the National Park Service to examine the wreck’s condition, or to inter the remains of survivors of the attack who wish to be laid to rest near their fellow shipmates.Only a few dignitaries have been allowed to swim at the site since at least the Obama administration, but none of them were FBI chiefs, even though they have visited Pearl Harbor. Patel, yet again, appears to be using his job and access to a private FBI jet to get away with vacationing on the taxpayer’s dime.Patel has used FBI resources to fly to see his girlfriend sing at a wrestling event and have agents protect her, as well as buy a new fleet of BMWs to ride around in. He went to Italy to party during the Olympics, and drinks so much on the job that he once passed out behind a locked door, requiring “breaching equipment” to get him out. And how many other FBI directors had their own personalized bourbon, and lashed out when it went missing?Patel appears to think that he gets to party and carry out President Trump’s bidding, such as going after the president’s political enemies and purging agents who don’t toe the administration’s line, even when they are experts on Iran. The list of Patel’s transgressions is long, but he still has a job until his misdeeds outweigh his pro-Trump sycophancy.
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