U.S. Senate Democrats attempted to pull some good old fashioned gumshoing over on FBI Director Kash Patel, accusing him of wrongdoing by taking a private jet on several occasions for personal travels, which, Republicans keenly pointed out, is actual adherence to federal law. Talk about having egg on your face. Yikes.
Patel’s recent journeys were the main topic of a recent story published by the New York Times, which made allegations of dysfunction inside the bureau under his leadership. Reporters for the publication had conversations with several anonymous sources who insinuated that the current director of the FBI might have violated ethical laws when he chartered a private jet to take him to an NFL game where he got to sit with Wayne “The Great One” Gretzky.
He also chartered a plan to take him to a UFC event where President Donald Trump was also in attendance. Then, on Monday morning, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois along with other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, discussed the Times article in a post on social media.
“BREAKING: New reporting finds apparent misuse of government dollars by Kash Patel, using government resources to attend hockey games and a UFC match,” the committee’s social media account’s post said. Of course, they also completely skipped over the part in the story that notes there’s a requirement that the director of the FBI rely on government planes for personal travel.
“Directors must fly on government aircraft for their travel because of required access to secure communications equipment,” it says.
I guess reading comprehension isn’t a prerequisite for joining the Democratic Party.
“Patel, the report goes on, must reimburse the government for the cost of a commercial ticket to and from the destination, far less than the cost of operating a privet jet. The story’s authors also point to three private trips the FBI director has taken to visit his girlfriend, a country singer in Nashville, Tennessee,” Trending Politics News said.
An FBI spokesperson replied “all ethical guidelines are rigorously followed” when asked about whether Patel is adhering to the letter of the law.
The discrepancies apparently weren’t missed by eagle-eyed readers of the story, who chastised Sen. Durbin and other Judiciary Committee Democrat for wasting their time with bogus allegations of law-breaking by Patel when it was Sen. Chris Van Hollen who most recently used taxpayer dollars to mount an ill-fated trip to El Salvador in order to spring from prison a Maryland illegal alien accused of being an MS-13 gang member.
“Really reaching after a trip to El Salvador was expensed,” one X user replied to the committee’s post.
Another weighed in, saying, “Meanwhile, Democrats are misusing funds violating the Logan Act while they stand in El Salvador trying to bring back a foreign terrorist into this Country.”
“The Times story enflamed tensions between Patel, Deputy Dan Bongino, and disgruntled anti-Trump agents who whispered salacious stories to the outlet, including one about Bongino allegedly losing a sparring match with a jiu-jitsu-trained special agent. The anecdote prompted Bongino to issue a visceral rebuke of the story’s author the night before it was published,” TPN reported.
As of this writing, Patel hasn’t acknowledged the NYT story, except for sharing Bongino’s response.
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