FBI Director Kash Patel is catching heat from frustrated Trump administration officials over his use of the bureau's jet, and a new report revealed he used the airliner to travel to a posh private hunting resort.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night on Patel's trips using the FBI's jet, noting the plane itself has made dozens of trips since Patel became director. In that time, Patel has "drawn flak from his bosses" in the DOJ and from his "underlings" at the FBI, according to the report.
"Patel hit the news for taking an FBI plane to attend a wrestling event where his girlfriend, a country western singer, performed, and then to her home in Nashville. A former FBI agent, Kyle Seraphin, publicized the trip and called the taxpayer funded travel in the middle of a shutdown 'pathetic," the Journal noted.
That was in late October. A day after he arrived in State College, Pennsylvania, to attend the wrestling event, he traveled to Nashville. The report then unveiled a previously undisclosed trip Patel made — a stop in San Angelo, Texas, at a hunting resort called the Boondoggle Ranch.
The private ranch, which bills itself as a "scenic hunting resort," is owned by the family of a Republican donor and friend of Patel’s, C.R. “Bubba” Saulsbury Jr. The plane remained in town from Sunday until Wednesday during the government shutdown.
Patel's travels haven't gone unnoticed.
"Patel’s travel has frustrated both Justice Department officials, who complained to the White House about it, and the White House itself, which had told cabinet officials months ago in writing to limit their travel, particularly if it was overseas or unrelated to Trump’s agenda, according to an administration official. Details about Patel’s trips to visit his girlfriend and an August trip to Scotland have been passed around the White House in recent days, officials said," according to the report.
The Journal added that Patel’s jet-setting has become a "source of gossip within the bureau," and Trump himself has "occasionally expressed irritation in private with his FBI director," even as he continues to support him, the report added.
Trump's FBI chief issued a stern response to the Journal, downplaying the report.
“Thankfully, Americans can see through WSJ hot garbage—this FBI has never been stronger,” he said.
Meanwhile, the White House publicly supported Patel as well.
Trump is “very proud of the work the FBI is doing under Director Patel’s leadership,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told the newspaper, adding that Trump sees Patel as a “key player on his law-and-order team.”