The FBI was delayed in responding to the Brown University mass shooting last December in large part due to a confusing order from FBI Director Kash Patel, a whistleblower and three inside sources recently told Congress, MS NOW reported on Tuesday.
The shooting, which left two students dead and nine others wounded, sparked a chaotic manhunt as the shooter managed to evade authorities for days until he was reportedly found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
According to the report, Patel was in Florida at the time of the shooting, using one of the FBI’s two available jets. In an order that left FBI officials “confused,” Patel had also ordered the FBI’s second jet to be held “for another team that would not normally respond to the scene,” MS NOW reported.
The whistleblower’s account of events was shared with Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who demanded answers in a letter sent to the Justice Department and the Government Accountability Office on Tuesday.
“The Director’s misplaced priorities and poor management of the FBI’s resources – including its aircraft – also harmed the FBI’s ability to respond to the shooting at Brown University on December 13, 2025,” Durbin wrote in the letter, obtained by MS NOW.
“Since his confirmation as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Kash Patel has seemingly engaged in what amounts to irresponsible joyriding on DOJ and FBI-operated aircraft at the expense of the American taxpayer and to the detriment of ongoing Bureau operations.”