Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is finally questioning the dozens of reports that officials in President Donald Trump’s administration are using government resources for personal reasons.
According to MS NOW reporter Ken Dilanian, Grassley wants information about Kash Patel’s personal use of the FBI plane and the recent decision to purchase BMW SUVs for the FBI. But those only scratch the surface of Patel’s use of taxpayer dollars to fund his personal adventures. Patel has used government money for helicopter tours and jet ski excursions, said a whistleblower report given to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
During the first Trump administration, two Cabinet officials were forced out after their personal use of government planes and helicopters. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke were both ousted after reports revealed they used the government aircraft for trips home, horseback riding with the vice president and even vacations. In Zinke’s case, he spent $14,000 in taxpayer dollars to use a helicopter instead of driving two hours.
Now it appears that Patel has been caught doing the same and Grassley wants further information.
“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,” Grassley said in a letter to Patel, according to Dilanian’s report.
Unlike other Cabinet officials, the FBI director is required by policy to use the FBI jet for safety reasons. In this case, however, Grassley wants an accounting of the aircraft’s use to conduct his own “independent and objective review.”
At the same time, Grassley has asked: “Please explain why you decided to purchase BMW vehicles instead of Chevy Suburbans.” General Motors is an American company, while BMW is German, though both the Suburban and the BMW SUV are manufactured in the U.S. It has been a longstanding policy that the government purchases vehicles from American companies.
When asked for documents about the purchase at the time, Patel refused.
Democrats Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.) and Sen. Richard Durbin (Ill.) said in their own letter that they “appreciate Chairman Grassley raising these concerns, which mirror those raised repeatedly by House and Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats.”
Their letter references a VIP snorkeling trip in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, an excursion that was first reported by the AP and confirmed by the FBI as “a historical tour to honor heroes who died.”
“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.”
The letter continues, “Your jet-setting and the lack of justification for these trips are ‘out of control,’ and the new attaché office you established in Wellington, New Zealand, may have been opened in part to justify a sightseeing trip you took there.”
After his Hawaii trip, Patel went to Australia and New Zealand before hopping over to Italy to watch the U.S. men’s hockey team win the gold medal at the Olympics. He was filmed chugging a beer in the locker room celebration. His outings also include flying to see his country singer girlfriend perform, attending hockey games and UFC events.
According to the Democrats, a source said Patel “demoted personnel in Brussels because they failed to ensure you were adequately entertained, stoking fear among rank-and-file agents that they must provide your demanded perks or face termination. Concerns and strains prompted by the prioritization of your personal entertainment on international trips may have led to the resignation of the head of the FBI’s international operations this year.”
The FBI focuses exclusively on domestic issues, though there are 64 overseas Legal Attaché locations.
The Democrats go on to say that a source told them Patel was overheard bragging in a field office “If you have golf, hockey, fishing, or hunting and beautiful sights, you’re going to see a lot of me.”
“This is not the conduct of a committed and faithful public servant, especially one entrusted with ensuring the safety of almost 350 million Americans,” the Democrats wrote.
The letter continued: “Your lack of judiciousness regarding your personal travel and dubious use of official travel appear to violate not only government ethics law and Department of Justice policy, but also White House directives.”
“Despite its myriad failures and hypocrisies on this point, the Trump administration has expressly promised Americans that it would crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse of government spending and has reportedly directed officials to limit their travel, particularly overseas travel or travel unrelated to the President’s agenda,” the Democrats added.