FBI Director Kash Patel takes company jet to Italy, plans to attend Olympic hockey video games in Italy, sources say

FBI Director Kash Patel, whose use of a authorities jet has regularly come underneath scrutiny, took the identical airplane on Thursday to fly to Italy with plans to attend the Olympic hockey medal rounds, based on public knowledge and sources conversant in the matter.

Public flight knowledge reviewed by CBS Information confirmed the FBI Gulfstream jet that’s usually utilized by the FBI director took off on Thursday morning for an Air Power base in Italy, after a quick flight from Manassas, Virginia, to Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland Wednesday.

Sources additionally confirmed to CBS Information that Patel was en path to Milan, the place he’s planning to observe the Males’s USA Olympic hockey staff compete within the medal rounds. Patel individually despatched a number of posts on social media on Thursday morning in assist of the American hockey groups. Patel’s airplane landed in Italy Thursday night, native time, based on a supply at Flight Radar 24.

As a part of the journey, Patel can also be scheduled to participate in conferences with regulation enforcement counterparts in Italy, one of many sources added.

An FBI spokesman didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Congressional Democrats late final yr launched a probe into Patel’s use of the federal government airplane, after media experiences revealed that he had used it for private excursions starting from a sporting occasion in Pennsylvania the place his girlfriend was performing and a date night time in Tennessee, to a Texas resort often called “Boondoggle Ranch.”

FBI administrators are required to make use of authorities plane for air journey, whether or not official or private, with the intention to guarantee they keep entry to safe communications. 

Nonetheless, congressional Democrats have questioned whether or not Patel’s seemingly in depth use of the airplane for private journeys crosses the road.

Patel was a fierce critic of his predecessor Chris Wray’s use of the airplane, together with when Wray would use it to fly to his trip house in upstate New York.

Patel, who performs in a neighborhood hockey league in Virginia and beforehand coached youth hockey, has beforehand used the FBI airplane to attend hockey video games.

On April 5, the FBI jet took a 57-minute flight to Stewart Worldwide Airport, in New York, the place Patel made an look at a charity hockey occasion hosted by the FBI. 

The following day, the jet was again within the air to JFK Airport, touchdown simply hours earlier than Patel resurfaced in field seats subsequent to hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and watched Capitals star Alex Ovechkin break the NHL scoring file.