Report: Kash Patel Was Desperate to Snorkel in a Graveyard

[LetMyPeopleVote]

This is sick. This is a grave site that should be honored. Patel is a real asshole

Report: Kash Patel Was Desperate to Snorkel in a Graveyard The FBI director went on a VIP snorkeling trip at Pearl Harbor last summer. ...

— US Political Politics News 💙🌈🦋The Fighting Liberal (@us-political-news.bsky.social) 2026-05-14T22:00:22Z

https://newrepublic.com/post/210478/report-kash-patel-desperate-snorkel-graveyard-pearl-harbor

Kash Patel can’t stop living the good life.

The FBI director reportedly went on a VIP snorkeling trip while on a visit to Hawaii last summer that the bureau stressed was not a vacation. Patel was officially in the state to tour the FBI’s Honolulu branch and meet with local law enforcement, or at least that’s what the bureau’s news releases said.

But the Associated Press obtained government emails showing that Patel took part in the snorkeling excursion, coordinated by the military, near the USS Arizona, which was sunk in the World War II attack on Pearl Harbor. That wasn’t mentioned in the bureau’s public releases, nor was Patel’s return to Hawaii for two days after initially visiting the state.

Snorkeling and diving are usually prohibited around the sunken battleship, with rare exceptions. It’s essentially a military cemetery, as over 900 sailors and Marines died in the 1941 attack by Japan. Most dives either are done by Marine archaeologists or crews from the National Park Service to examine the wreck’s condition, or to inter the remains of survivors of the attack who wish to be laid to rest near their fellow shipmates.

Only a few dignitaries have been allowed to swim at the site since at least the Obama administration, but none of them were FBI chiefs, even though they have visited Pearl Harbor. Patel, yet again, appears to be using his job and access to a private FBI jet to get away with vacationing on the taxpayer’s dime.

[cbabe]

1. This is grotesque. He is grotesque. Who ever approved this needs to be fired.

The families and vets need to rise up.

[Norrrm]

2. Hegseth

[magicarpet]

3. Well his big tough guy boss, President ShitsHisPants, desecrated the graves at Arlington National Cemetery,..

... by taking videos for a campaign ad in a restricted area of the cemetery.

[sheshe2]

4. This admin hates America and her people.

That's it. That is all I have other than tears.

[Grim Chieftain]

7. Their depravity knows no end

How this once great nation has fallen...

[Skittles]

5. he is so fucking disgusting

[Buddyzbuddy]

6. Why is the Director of the FBI acting like he's queen for a day, everyday?

Is it possible he's ingesting his booze rectally to hide his boozy breath?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. Snorkeling at Pearl Harbor: Kash Patel's Travels Add to Focus on Ethical Issues (New York Times Gift Article)

The F.B.I. director continues to come under scrutiny for mixing government business with dates, vacation and leisure time.

Link to tweet

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/us/politics/patel-fbi-travel-snorkeling-pearl-harbor.html?unlocked_article_code=1.i1A._lyf.54Rq3Q4j2Q0Y&smid=bs-share

Last summer, the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, capped a whirlwind South Pacific trip with a snorkel trip in Hawaii.

There, Navy SEALs used two boats to transport and escort Mr. Patel and nine other people on what a Defense Department email called a “V.I.P. Snorkel” next to one of the military’s most sacred sites, the underwater tomb of the U.S.S. Arizona that holds the remains of more than 900 Navy sailors and Marines who died at Pearl Harbor.

Mr. Patel swam in the vicinity of the tomb for 30 minutes, according to the Navy.

Out of respect for the dead entombed in the wreck of the Arizona, rules bar visitors even from wearing swimwear at the memorial. With some exceptions over the years for dignitaries, the only people allowed in the water around the tomb are military and National Park Service divers interring the remains of the last Arizona survivors in the wreck, or conducting annual maintenance surveys, according to a former Navy officer and a former National Park Service official familiar with restrictions at the site.....

The idea of a high-ranking government official receiving an escort from the SEALs for a recreational swim near the tomb is “horrifying,” said William M. McBride, a Navy veteran and professor emeritus of history at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.....

Last year on Saturday, May 10, Mr. Patel and Ms. Wilkins traveled from Washington to Philadelphia to see George Strait and Chris Stapleton perform, a hot ticket among country music fans. Mr. Patel and Ms. Wilkins flew there on the F.B.I.’s Gulfstream V jet.

Mr. Patel and Ms. Wilkins saw the show from a private suite at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, according to three people with knowledge of their trip, including an F.B.I. employee who happened to be at the concert and saw them. The suite sold for $35,000 to $50,000 for that show, according to a person who has booked those accommodations in the past......

In early April, Senator David McCormick, Republican of Pennsylvania, invited Mr. Patel and top federal and state law enforcement officials to Allentown, Pa., for a closed-door meeting on combating trafficking of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that has killed tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians.

Mr. Patel brought along Ms. Wilkins, who sat at the head of the table with Mr. Patel and top F.B.I. officials as they discussed strategy and heard emotional testimony from families whose children died from overdoses. Ms. Wilkins’s presence confused some attendees, one of whom asked the F.B.I. what her role was. In an emailed statement, Mr. McCormick said he had invited Mr. Patel, but the F.B.I. said he invited Ms. Wilkins, too.

Patel is really pushing it.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. Patel needs to be fired after he thought it was a good idea to use his title as the FBI Director to snorkel at this sit

Link to tweet