FBI Director’s Taxpayer-Funded Trip To Olympics Faces Scrutiny

FBI Director Kash Patel’s four-day trip to Italy has reignited criticism of his travel at taxpayer expense.

The Italy trip culminated with Patel crashing the U.S. men’s Olympic Hockey team’s locker room following their gold medal win over Canada. The New York Times reviewed Patel’s schedule in Italy and found that he had several hours of work meetings, but plenty of downtime.

The newspaper acknowledged that it was possible some events or meetings might have been kept off the schedule.

“Director Patel had highly productive meetings in Italy focused on strengthening joint counterterrorism coordination, transnational crime enforcement, the extradition of high value targets and Olympic security planning with our closest allies,” Ben Williamson, a spokesman for Patel, told the newspaper.

However, Democratic Congressman Jason Crow wrote on X that the trip amounted to blatant corruption, referring to it as taxpayers “funding the FBI Director’s Italian vacation.”

The scrutiny over Patel’s travel has been ongoing, the Associated Press reported, noting that Patel has used the government Gulfstream G550 for flights around the U.S. that seemingly had no law enforcement purpose.

The AP reported that in October Patel went to State College, Pennsylvania, for a pro wrestling event. Patel’s girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, performed the national anthem at the event.

Williamson defended Patel, the AP reported, saying he is required to use the bureau jet for security even when traveling on a personal trip.

“Kash himself has significantly limited personal travel — but he’s allowed to take personal time on occasion to see family, friends or his longtime girlfriend. He doesn’t do it often. He works far more full weekends than he does otherwise. And maybe most importantly — ask anyone who works for him, he’s on duty 24/7 regardless.”