Overview
- Senator Dick Durbin asked the GAO and the Justice Department inspector general to investigate after receiving whistleblower disclosures alleging FBI Director Kash Patel’s aircraft use and directives hampered responses to the Charlie Kirk assassination and the Brown University mass shooting.
- According to the whistleblower and three insiders, Patel was in South Florida with one of the bureau’s two jets during the Dec. 13, 2025 Brown shooting and placed a hold on the second for the Hostage Rescue Team, prompting confusion and forcing an evidence response team to drive overnight to Providence.
- Durbin’s letter says the FBI shooting reconstruction team’s deployment to Utah after Kirk’s killing was delayed by at least a day because a plane and pilots were unavailable under FAA duty‑time rules due to the director’s travel, a claim Reuters noted it could not independently verify.
- FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson rejected the allegations, saying resources were not constrained, Boston-based evidence personnel arrived quickly at Brown, Patel was on official travel around 9/11 when Kirk was killed, and the director offers his plane if needed.
- The New York Times published Patel’s Milan Olympics itinerary showing long blocks labeled personal or cultural activities, which the FBI condemned as a criminal leak, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul publicly called for Patel to resign.