{"id":129812,"date":"2026-05-14T17:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T20:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/emails-show-his-hawaii-trip-included-vip-snorkel-at-pearl-harbor-memorial\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T17:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T20:51:23","slug":"emails-show-his-hawaii-trip-included-vip-snorkel-at-pearl-harbor-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/emails-show-his-hawaii-trip-included-vip-snorkel-at-pearl-harbor-memorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Emails show his Hawaii trip included \u2018VIP snorkel\u2019 at Pearl Harbor memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

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FBI Director Kash Patel has certainly generated a lot of headlines recently. A week ago, for example, the public learned about his personally branded liquor bottles<\/a>. The same day, MS NOW reported that the bureau had launched a highly controversial criminal leak investigation<\/a> focusing on a journalist at The Atlantic who wrote a deeply unflattering account\u00a0of Patel.<\/p>\n

Days later, the former podcast personality threw a bit of a tantrum<\/a> during a Senate hearing. The same day, NOTUS reported<\/a> that Patel\u2019s FBI had put together a team of special agents that has been internally referred to as the \u201cpayback squad,\u201d featuring members \u201cwilling to pursue political targets set by the Trump administration.\u201d One day later, MS NOW also reported<\/a> that, according to FBI insiders, Patel had manipulated data and was \u201cpadding the stats\u201d in order to exaggerate federal arrest data and make himself look better.<\/p>\n

He might not have needed another mess, but the director appears to have one anyway. The Associated Press reported<\/a> on Patel\u2019s visit to Hawaii last summer, which the FBI insisted was not a vacation. There\u2019s fresh evidence to the contrary:<\/p>\n

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Left out of FBI\u2019s news releases was an exclusive excursion that Patel took days later when he participated in what government officials described as a \u201cVIP snorkel\u201d around the USS Arizona in an outing coordinated by the military. The sunken battleship entombs more than 900 sailors and Marines at Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n

The swim, revealed in government emails obtained by The Associated Press, comes to light amid criticism over Patel\u2019s use of the FBI plane and his global travel that has blended 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

An FBI spokesman did not answer questions about the snorkeling session, according to the AP, though it acknowledged that regional commanders hosted Patel at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam \u201cas they commonly do with US government officials on official travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AP also quoted Stacey Young, who founded Justice Connection, a network of former federal prosecutors and agents who advocate for the Department of Justice\u2019s independence, who said, \u201cIt fits a pattern of Director Patel getting tangled up in unseemly distractions \u2014 this time at a site commemorating the second deadliest attack in U.S. history \u2014 instead of staying laser-focused on keeping Americans safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of what makes the new allegations so striking is the fact that many of Patel\u2019s troubles stem from leaks from FBI insiders. The director has struggled for months with critics within the bureau, but there\u2019s every reason to believe the problem is getting worse.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, it\u2019s worth appreciating just how unsurprising<\/em> the latest controversy is.<\/p>\n

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Recommended<\/h3>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSteve Benen<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSteve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of\u00a0MaddowBlog\u00a0and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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