House Democrats want Kash Patel to answer for his spending — but this time they’re not alone

FBI Director Kash Patel has been demanding special perks from bureau employees during his taxpayer-funded travels throughout the country, including helicopter tours and jet ski excursions, according to whistleblower accounts given to Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary committees and obtained exclusively by MS NOW.

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But the Democrats are not alone in their concerns about Patel’s use of public resources; MS NOW has also viewed a letter to Patel from Republican Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley demanding that Patel turn over information about his flights on FBI aircraft and about the FBI’s purchase of BMW vehicles, which was first reported in December by MS NOW.

“For each trip where you used an FBI aircraft for personal travel, have you reimbursed the FBI as required by law?  If yes, please provide the records,” the Grassley letter says.

Grassley acknowledged that FBI policy requires the director to fly in the FBI jet even when traveling for personal reasons, but he said Congress deserves an accounting of the director’s use of FBI aircraft to conduct an “independent and objective review.”

Grassley, who has consistently defended Patel publicly, asked the director in the letter to “please explain why you decided to purchase BMW vehicles instead of Chevy Suburbans.”

MS NOW reported in December that Patel directed the FBI to purchase several BMW x5 SUVs for the director’s use despite a long-standing policy of purchasing Chevrolet Suburban SUVs for that purpose. Patel’s spokesman said at the time that the move saved the government money, but he declined to release documents substantiating that claim.

In their own letter, Rep. Jamie Raskin and Sen. Richard Durbin said that they “appreciate Chairman Grassley raising these concerns, which mirror those raised repeatedly by House and Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats.”

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment by MS NOW.

The letter from Democrats references an incident last summer, when Patel was allowed by the military to take a VIP snorkeling trip in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, around the wreckage of the USS Arizona, where 1,177 sailors and Marines died during the Japanese attack in 1941. That excursion was first reported by The Associated Press and confirmed by Patel’s spokesman, who defended it as “a historical tour to honor heroes who died” on the sunken aircraft carrier.

“Your VIP snorkeling experience in Hawaii was not an isolated incident,” Raskin and Durbin wrote. “You frequently demand special perks on ‘official’ trips around the globe, such as a taxpayer-funded helicopter tour during your multi-country jaunt across East Asia and other recreational activities like jet skiing.”