FBI Director Kash Patel took part in a VIP snorkel outing near the USS Arizona Memorial on his return from official visits to Australia and New Zealand last summer. As you can imagine, Washington's outrage factory fired up like somebody found a second Watergate in a dive bag.
Emails obtained by the Associated Press show military officials helped coordinate logistics for the excursion.
When Kash Patel visited Hawaii last summer, the FBI took pains to note the director was not on vacation, highlighting his walking tour of the bureau’s Honolulu field office and meetings with local law enforcement.
Left out of the FBI’s news releases was an exclusive excursion that Patel took days later when he participated in what government officials described as a “VIP snorkel” around the USS Arizona in an outing coordinated by the military. The sunken battleship entombs more than 900 sailors and Marines at Pearl Harbor.
The swim, revealed in government emails obtained by The Associated Press, comes to light amid criticism of Patel’s use of the FBI plane and his global travel, which have blurred professional responsibilities with leisure activities. The FBI did not disclose the snorkeling session or that Patel had returned to Hawaii for two days after his initial stopover on the island.
“It fits a pattern of Director Patel getting tangled up in unseemly distractions — this time at a site commemorating the second deadliest attack in U.S. history — instead of staying laser-focused on keeping Americans safe,” said Stacey Young, who founded Justice Connection, a network of former federal prosecutors and agents who advocate for the Department of Justice’s independence.
The USS Arizona remains one of America's most sacred military sites, with over 900 sailors and Marines entombed after Japan's December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.
The AP's story leans hard on emails and “…a former government diver who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution,” who said Patel's outing seemed unusual for a director or anyone without a connection to the memorial.
And yet, when reached for comment, the Navy told the AP that outings like Patel's aren't unusual.
Government emails obtained by the AP through a public records request show military officials coordinated logistics and personnel for the “VIP Snorkel.”
The National Park Service, which administers the site in coordination with the Navy, told AP it was not involved in Patel’s swim and declined to comment on the excursion. It also declined to answer questions about any other such outings.
Among those afforded invitations to snorkel have been Navy admirals, secretaries of defense and interior, according to the former government diver. The diver added that the swims were intended to provide officials with insights into the memorial and its operations.
The Navy declined to provide examples or numbers showing how frequently it organizes such excursions. It described Patel’s outing as “not an anomaly.”
The Navy described Patel's outing as “not an anomaly,” and the National Park Service said it wasn't involved in the snorkeling expedition.
Adding to the umbrage, Hack Albertson, a Marine veteran and trained diver with the Paralyzed Veterans of America, called the outing inappropriate because the site deserves solemn treatment. Adding more manure to their garden, the AP also provides another pile of cow waste because it sounds like Watergate.
“It fits a pattern of Director Patel getting tangled up in unseemly distractions — this time at a site commemorating the second deadliest attack in U.S. history — instead of staying laser-focused on keeping Americans safe,” said Stacey Young, who founded Justice Connection, a network of former federal prosecutors and agents who advocate for the Department of Justice’s independence.
Fine, ask fair questions. Pearl Harbor deserves reverence, government travel deserves scrutiny, and FBI leadership deserves a hard look when taxpayer resources enter the picture.
Yet fair questions lose their force when they arrive wrapped in the usual anonymous-source fog and placed inside a wider campaign against one man who's been treated like a Beltway piñata since dirt was young.
Patel didn't wander into public life last Tuesday; he worked as a public defender, a national security prosecutor, a congressional intelligence staffer, a National Security Council counterterrorism official, and deputy director of National Intelligence before President Donald Trump placed him at the FBI.
As I said moments ago, Young founded Justice Connection and framed the snorkel outing as another distraction tied to Patel's leadership.
Senate Democrats have also pressed Patel over separate claims involving drinking, attendance, and government travel. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) confronted him this week during a Senate hearing, and Patel rejected the drinking allegations as a "total farce."
Fair enough. Elected officials need to ask questions, yet nobody should pretend the questions appear in a clean room, scrubbed of politics, grudges, and old scores.
One question that I wish the AP would've asked might have put all this to rest. Remember, Patel was returning from a long trip and had a couple of free days in Hawaii.
That question? Did Patel pay for the snorkeling outing? Dollars to donuts he did, but since it takes away from the controversy, that information wasn't included in the AP's scorching report.
Now, here's an uncomfortable question that nobody is asking. Remembering the Democrats' history on race—founded the KKK, fought against civil rights, etc.—Patel also happens to be a person of color, and he leads the FBI under President Trump.
If Republicans built the same kind of sustained attack package around a Democratic official of color, the same crowd now nodding along would call a press conference before lunch and midday tea. They would see patterns, hear dog whistles, and demand context, motive, and sensitivity. With Patel, many of them suddenly become accountants of propriety, armed with anonymous complaints and a stopwatch for his schedule.
Maybe Patel should've skipped the snorkel, perhaps the Navy should explain the approval process more clearly, and perhaps the FBI should've disclosed more about the trip.
I understand those arguments. The problem begins when a limited travel story gets inflated into proof of unfitness while the sample political class ignores its own selective standards.
Patel's opponents don't want one answer about one outing; they want another brick for a wall they started building before he ever sat behind the director's desk.
VIP members keep independent voices alive when legacy gatekeepers decide which scandals deserve oxygen and which ones get buried in the backyard. Use promo code FIGHT for 60% off VIP access.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member