Kash Patel's $75K Milan Trip EXPOSED — FBI Jets Unavailable for Mass Shooting

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]When Senator Chris Coons backed FBI Director Cash Patel into a corner regarding the exorbitant cost of a trip to Italy and the sudden unexplained dismissal of top-tier counterintelligence experts just days before the outbreak of war, Patel's deflections ignited a firestorm of lingering questions. Thank you, uh Chairwoman Ranking Member Van Hollen, um Senator Murkowski, um and I appreciate uh each of our witnesses for being here today. Uh during National Police Week, I just wanted to express uh my particular appreciation uh for the men and women of each of your agencies.

[00:00:33]Uh when I was county executive, I was responsible for the second largest law enforcement agency in our state, and our partnerships uh with Marshals, ATF, DEI, DEA, FBI, and many other elements of federal law enforcement were really critical to our investigations uh and working to advance security in in my home community.

[00:00:54]Uh in just the last few months, uh the New Castle County Police have worked with the FBI to arrest a suspect who had both plans and weapons to carry out a mass shooting at the University of Delaware, uh worked with DEA uh to investigate methamphetamine distributors, worked with the Marshal Service to [snorts] arrest a suspect uh with a warrant out for attempted murder.

[00:01:11]These are just a few brief examples. I have other topics to get to, but if each of you could just briefly tell me um what are your plans for strengthening your partnerships with local law enforcement, and what more do you need from Congress to execute on those plans?

[00:01:25]The stage was set on Tuesday during a pivotal congressional hearing coinciding with National Police Week. Director Patel.

[00:01:33]Thank you, Senator. One thing we need, always need more of, is data from state and local. Anything we can do from a legislative perspective at the federal state level to get us that data, so we can ingest the data and get it back out to our partners, that's critical.

[00:01:46]Um what we're doing to expand um at specifically at the FBI, for the first time ever, we stood up our LEPC, our Law Enforcement Partner Engagement Council.

[00:01:54]So I didn't want to just hear from police officers from around the country by email and phone call. I embedded 10 officers and sheriffs and tribal officers permanently at the FBI because they're the best connected. And so for us, that's the best way forward along with getting out into the field and making sure our field partners see and feel us and touch us and tell us what their problems are. Thank you, Director.

[00:02:16]Senator, more connectivity to our state, local, and tribal partners is the utmost importance at DEA.

[00:02:22]Do with the significant change in the landscape with synthetic opioids, Mhm.

[00:02:27]with more methamphetamine pills coming in, more cocaine coming in, it's important that those state and local counterparts, the men and women that are on the front lines every single day have the same intelligence and the same information that the DEA does. Mhm. Part of this is coming from our capacity to build foreign partnerships. Mhm. The amount of foreign partnerships and people we have down range in Mexico and Colombia, that intel is critical to the beat officer that's working in rural areas.

[00:02:53]So we have to continue to be better partners, continue to be more engaged, and respond when they call for help.

[00:03:00]To address violent criminal activity.

[00:03:01]>> Director Serralta, I'm going to interrupt myself. I appreciate the work that you and the Marshal Service do to keep federal judges safe, but there's thousands of state and local judges who don't have the same intelligence network, the same resources. I'm proud to co-sponsor a bill with Senator John Cornyn that creates would create a new state judicial threat intelligence and resource center. Uh it would provide security assessments for local courts and help local law enforcement make assessments about how to keep judges home safe and how to keep court personnel safe.

[00:03:32]It's passed the Senate unanimously.

[00:03:34]Do you have any opinion about whether or not the House should take it up and whether or not partnering with state and local court systems would help advance judicial security in this country?

[00:03:45]Senator, thank you. Thank you for your work on that. My My opinion would be is that any judge that we can keep safe, whether they be in state or the federal bench, we should keep safe. To that end, I'll tell you judges make decisions that are life-changing.

[00:04:06]Sometimes they themselves. So, 50% of the time someone is upset with the judges decision, right? Whether they win or lose. And that's something that we need to keep in mind.

[00:04:17]Justices, judges, the judiciary is are the pillars of our country. I look forward to working with you on protecting and promoting judicial security, Director Patel. Um reauthorization of Section 702 is something I've previously grappled with, >> [clears throat] >> but we've not heard at all from officials from the FBI or the other intelligence agencies testifying about the proposed 18-month clean extension. Were you invited by Chairman Grassley to testify before our committee about Section 702? I What I recall, Senators, is that I've been uh we and the FBI team have been providing briefings pursuant to to the chairman's request. So, we've done at least a dozen in the Senate and at least half a dozen or more in the House, including myself and Director Ratcliffe personally. Okay.

[00:05:03]I have not participated in or benefited from any of those briefings. And doing oversight on the reforms that were put in place and how close they're being followed is critical to my concluding whether or not I'll vote for an extension. Um Director, I just I have to ask you one last question. Um You attended the Olympics in Milan.

[00:05:24]How much did your trip cost and to what extent did that help you carry out your mission as director of the FBI? I greatly appreciate the question, Senator. As you know, the FBI and DHS are responsible for the security of the Olympics, the World Cup, the F1, the Super Bowl, and everything else. We had 250,000 Americans travel to Milan. We're proud that we stood up our JAC there and had zero [clears throat] major security incidents involving American citizens.

[00:05:49]And what we did was we purposely planned that trip around the Olympics because as I mentioned in my opening, the top cyber criminal from the CCP was housed in Italian custody.

[00:06:00]But while there, we were able to work an agreement, an arrangement to have that individual expelled from Italy instead of going back to China like has so often happened in places like Serbia. And so we accomplished that mission and we kept it quiet and that individual was returned to America 2 weeks ago. I was concerned that just before we went to war with Iran, a whole group of FBI agents were terminated about 10 who were reportedly analysts with expertise in handling Iranian counterterrorism, fluent in Farsi, long experienced.

[00:06:31]Um I know there's ongoing litigation, but have you replaced them? Was there a reason for their dismissal?

[00:06:38]Um do we have the capabilities we need to protect the United States while there's an ongoing war in Iran?

[00:06:43]The public reporting is to the reasons for their dismissal I found deeply troubling. Well, as I've as I've addressed earlier, I don't believe the public reporting is accurate. What we did do for the first time in FBI history is stand up the Iran Threats Mission Center.

[00:06:56]Um that is housed inside the FBI with our Iran experts including intelligence analysts and agents and we have seen a 47% increase in the arrest of Iranian spies. Do you disagree that there were 10 Iran specialists dismissed right before the war began? Yes.

[00:07:13]Senator Hagerty.

[00:07:14]An event originally intended to honor law enforcement but which quickly evolved into a rigorous examination of the Federal Bureau of Investigations' current leadership and strategic priorities.

[00:07:25]Senator Chris Coons opened his remarks with a reflection on his previous tenure as a county executive where he oversaw the second largest law enforcement agency in his home state. He emphasized the vital importance of local partnerships with federal entities like the US Marshals, ATF, DEA, and FBI. To underscore this point, Coons highlighted several recent triumphs. Local police in Newcastle County collaborating with the FBI to thwart a suspect armed with plans and weapons for a mass shooting at the University of Delaware. Working alongside the DEA to dismantle methamphetamine distribution networks and coordinating with the Marshal Service to apprehend a suspect wanted for attempted murder. Pivoting from these local successes, Senator Coons directed a pointed inquiry to the assembled witnesses asking for their concrete plans to fortify partnerships with local law enforcement and what specific legislative support they required from Congress to achieve those goals. FBI Director Cash Patel responded by asserting a continuous need for more data from state and local authorities.

[00:08:33]He argued that legislative action at both the federal and state levels is essential to facilitate the intake and dissemination of this critical information back to their partners.

[00:08:44]Furthermore, Patel detailed a new initiative to expand the FBI's collaborative efforts, proudly announcing the establishment of the Law Enforcement Partner Engagement Council, or LEP. According to Patel, rather than relying on disparate emails and phone calls, he permanently embedded 10 sheriffs and tribal police officers directly at the FBI headquarters. He claimed this unprecedented move was the best path forward, emphasizing the need for field partners to physically interact with federal agents and clearly articulate their localized problems. The conversation then shifted to the Drug Enforcement Administration, where Administrator Timothy Shea echoed the paramount importance of connectivity with state, local, and tribal partners.

[00:09:31]He highlighted a drastically changing narcotic landscape characterized by an influx of synthetic opioids, methamphetamine pills, and cocaine. For the DEA, ensuring that frontline beat officers in rural American areas have access to the same high-level intelligence as federal agents is intrinsically linked to the agency's ability to forge robust foreign partnerships. By maintaining a strong presence and intelligence network downrange in countries like Mexico and Colombia, the DEA can better equip local police to combat violent criminal activity at home. Senator Coons briefly interrupted his own line of questioning to commend Director Serralto of the Marshal Service for their diligent work in safeguarding federal judges.

[00:10:16]However, Coons noted a glaring disparity.

[00:10:19]Thousands of state and local judges operate without access to comparable intelligence networks or security resources. To remedy this, Coons championed a bipartisan bill he co-sponsored with Republican Senator John Cornyn, which successfully passed the Senate unanimously. This legislation aims to create a new state judicial threat intelligence and resource center designed to provide comprehensive security assessments for local courts and assist law enforcement in keeping judges and court personnel safe at home and at work. When asked if the House should take up the legislation, Director Serralto expressed strong support stating that any judge making life-altering decisions, decisions that inherently upset half of the involved parties, deserves protection, reinforcing that the judiciary remains a fundamental pillar of the nation. The hearing then took a markedly confrontational turn as Senator Coons scrutinized the reauthorization of Section 702, a highly debated government surveillance law. Coons expressed frustration that the committee had not heard testimonies from FBI officials or other intelligence agencies regarding the proposed 18-month clean extension of this surveillance power, which allows US agencies to intercept messages from foreign targets, but routinely sweeps up American communications as well. When asked if Chairman Grassley had invited him to testify, Director Patel sidestepped the direct question, claiming instead that he and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe had personally conducted at least a dozen secret briefings in the Senate and half a dozen in the House. Coons, a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee that dictates the FBI's funding, bluntly stated that he had neither been invited to nor benefited from a single one of those briefings. This glaring omission suggested a curated review process selectively granting access to senators likely to vote in favor of the extension while intentionally sidelining those seeking to conduct rigorous oversight on previously implemented reforms. However, the most explosive moment of the interrogation arrived when Senator Coons confronted Patel directly about his attendance at the Olympic Games in Milan. Coons demanded to know the total cost of the trip and how it ostensibly served his mission as FBI director.

[00:12:44]Patel, clearly on the defensive, justified the travel by citing the FBI and DHS's overarching responsibility for securing major global events like the Olympics, World Cup, and Super Bowl.

[00:12:59]Noting that 250,000 Americans had traveled to Milan, Patel boasted of zero major security incidents. Furthermore, he claimed the trip was a meticulously planned covert operation timed to coincide with the Olympics because a top cyber criminal associated with the Chinese Communist Party was being held in Italian custody. Patel asserted that his physical presence was necessary to broker an arrangement to have the individual expelled to the United States rather than return to China. A mission he claimed was accomplished quietly with the suspect arriving in America 2 weeks prior. Yet Senator Coons did not let the director off the hook immediately pivoting to a matter of grave national security. Coons voiced deep concern over deeply troubling public reports that just before the United States engaged in Operation Epic Fury, a military mission alongside Israel that commenced on February 28th and resulted in the death of Iran's supreme leader, a group of approximately 10 FBI agents had been unceremoniously terminated. These were not rank and file employees, they were highly specialized analysts with extensive expertise in Iranian counterterrorism, fluent in Farsi, and possessing years of invaluable experience. Coons pressed Patel on whether these irreplaceable assets had been replaced and questioned if the United States still possessed the necessary capabilities to defend itself during an ongoing active war with Iran.

[00:14:31]Director Patel flatly denied the accuracy of the public reporting. He claimed that in response to the geopolitical climate, he had established the first ever Iran Threats Mission Center housed within the FBI, allegedly staffed with intelligence analysts and agents resulting in a purported 47% increase in the arrest of Iranian spies.

[00:14:54]When Senator Coons pointedly asked, "Do you disagree that there were 10 Iran specialists dismissed right before the war began?" Patel offered a single definitive word, "Yes." Despite Patel's sworn denial, a mountain of journalistic evidence paints a vastly different and far more alarming picture. The unit in question is CI-12, the FBI's elite counterintelligence squad tasked with neutralizing major espionage cases, media leaks, and clandestine threats from hostile nations like Iran and Cuba. Independent reports from CBS News, CNN, and the New York Sun confirmed that in late February 2026, Patel personally ordered the termination of at least a dozen agents and staff members from this highly specialized team. The timing is incredibly suspicious as these firings occurred mere days, not weeks or months, but days before the onset of the military conflict with Iran. According to detailed reporting by CBS News, these specialized agents were not removed due to poor performance or misconduct.

[00:16:01]Instead, multiple sources indicated a direct correlation between the firings and the agents' peripheral involvement in the investigation regarding classified documents stored at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. Specifically, the bureau director reportedly initiated the terminations within hours of learning that special counsel Jack Smith's team had legally subpoenaed his personal phone records alongside those of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. While this retaliatory motive has yet to be proven in a court of law, multiple news organizations corroborated the sequence of events, and no alternative official explanation has been provided to justify the suspicious timing. The collateral damage of this internal purge was catastrophic for national security. Among those abruptly fired was the leader of the specific section responsible for monitoring Iranian espionage and state-sponsored threats.

[00:16:59]The removal of the individual fundamentally in charge of tracking these dangers immediately prior to a war is practically unprecedented. One source candidly told CBS that the firings were devastating to the FBI's Iran program because the terminated agents had spent years cultivating deep-rooted trust with secret sources inside Iranian-American communities. This level of trust, the source noted, simply disappears when the handlers are removed. It cannot be artificially replicated or hastily handed over to newly assigned agents.

[00:17:35]While the FBI's official public relations apparatus attempted to push back, claiming their nationwide counterintelligence efforts remain robust, Patel's proposed solution was glaringly inadequate. To compensate for the loss of elite Farsi-speaking foreign intelligence experts, Patel offered up his newly minted law enforcement partner engagement council, the permanent addition of 10 local county sheriffs and tribal police officials. Attempting to replace federal specialists trained to track government-ordered assassination plots with local law enforcement officers tasked with municipal crime is a dangerous false equivalence. This substitution represents a profound and quiet alteration in the architecture of American national security. The CIA is strictly mandated by law to gather foreign intelligence and lacks domestic law enforcement power or internal counterintelligence authority.

[00:18:30]Consequently, the FBI serves as the primary national agency for domestic counterintelligence.

[00:18:37]When specialized federal teams are gutted and replaced by local sheriffs without congressional approval, open debate, or severe legislative questioning, a massive vulnerability is created. History proves the necessity of these experts. This identical unit was responsible for tracking lethal revenge plots following the 2020 military strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. They successfully managed cases involving state-backed plans to assassinate Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Unclassified reports from the Bureau and the Department of Homeland Security explicitly detail how these foreign adversaries operate dynamically utilizing biker gangs, drug cartels, burner phones, and untraceable cryptocurrency to mask the state's involvement. This is a sophisticated theater of shadow warfare that a county sheriff is fundamentally unequipped to navigate. Furthermore, the institutional degradation extends beyond the FBI. CNN reported in early March 2026 that numerous offices within the Department of Justice's National Security Division had hemorrhaged at least half of their staff due to a combination of firings and resignations since the beginning of the Trump administration. As one former senior DOJ official aptly summarized, "Losing half your capacity equates to losing half your operational ability."

[00:20:06]This starkly contrasts with the concurrent testimony of DEA Administrator Timothy Shea, who emphasized the urgent need to expand worldwide intelligence networks in regions like Mexico and Colombia to protect domestic communities.

[00:20:20]While the DEA actively builds its international intelligence apparatus, the FBI under Patel is simultaneously attempting to justify the crippling of its premier domestic counterintelligence team. As for Patel's boastful claim of a 47% increase in the arrest of spies through his newly fabricated Threat Center, that statistic is conspicuously absent from any official Bureau press release or accessible public congressional record. Even if the metric is accurate, arrests are a lagging indicator. They represent threats that have already materialized late in the process, not the proactive disruption of networks before they breach the United States.

[00:21:01]Spikes in arrests often reflect the apprehension of low-level operatives while the sophisticated command structure remains entirely insulated.

[00:21:09]The foundation of effective counterintelligence is the painstaking cultivation of human sources, specialized language fluency, and communal trust assets. You simply cannot arrest your way into recreating. Patel's testimony presented a massive unchallenged contradiction.

[00:21:26]He simultaneously denied firing the very experts required for the job while taking full credit for a new center dedicated to combating the same specific threats.

[00:21:38]The oversight committee disturbingly allowed this glaring conflict of logic to pass without a single follow-up question. This brings the narrative back to the ostentatious trip to Milan, Italy, where political spectacle successfully buried a far more severe administrative reality. When pressed on the exorbitant financial cost of what appeared to be a personal excursion, Director Patel deployed the narrative of a secret counterintelligence operation as an impenetrable shield. He publicly identified the target, outlined the timing, and praised Italian coordination. The Department of Justice indeed confirmed on April 27th that a 34 uh year-old Chinese citizen named Ju Shore was extradited from Italy to face nine criminal charges related to hacking American COVID-19 research and the massive Microsoft Exchange cyber campaign. The extradition was a factual event executed through the collaborative efforts of the DOJ's Office of International Affairs and Italy's National Police Cyber Division. However, the official DOJ release makes absolutely no mention that the personal on-the-ground involvement of the FBI director was operationally necessary for the mission success. That self-aggrandizing claim originated exclusively from Patel during an interview with Fox News Digital, serving as a highly convenient ex-post facto justification for the exact type of lavish government-funded travel he had previously condemned. Before assuming his role at the Bureau, Patel fiercely attacked his predecessor Chris Wray on the Glenn Beck program for utilizing a government-funded G5 jet for travel. In an audio clip later replayed by NPR, Patel expressed sheer outrage stating that spending $15,000 every time Wray's jet took off was unjustifiable.

[00:23:31]Yet independent calculations by Snopes, utilizing a 2013 GAO report adjusted for modern inflation and estimating an operational cost of $5,000 per flight hour, determined that Patel's Milan trip cost the American taxpayer between $60,000 and $75,000.

[00:23:52]The very man who publicly decried a $15,000 takeoff as a gross misuse of funds subsequently burned through $60,000 to attend an international sporting event, establishing a hypocritical standard he absolutely refused to apply to himself. This double standard had tangible negative impacts on domestic crisis response.

[00:24:13]According to whistleblower statements obtained and reported by MSNBC and NBC News in February 2026, the FBI's vital aviation assets were completely unavailable on December 13th, the day a specialized evidence team was desperately needed to respond to a horrific mass shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island. The whistleblower revealed that one jet was already out on assignment, while the second was inexplicably reserved for a team that does not typically deploy to mass shooting events. Consequently, the critical evidence response team was forced to rely on significantly slower ground transportation from Quantico, Virginia. While the Bureau fiercely disputed this narrative, claiming the Quantico team wasn't strictly necessary and that agents from the Boston field office arrived within 2 hours the date of the tragedy and the agency's ultimate investigative role remain officially confirmed. This starkly illustrates the immense collateral cost of monopolizing government resources for personal excursions. The internal friction generated by Patel's behavior reportedly reached the highest levels of government. NBC News reported on February 28th citing a source with intimate knowledge of the situation that President Trump who famously abstains from alcohol personally expressed his intense dissatisfaction to Patel regarding his locker room demeanor and egregious misuse of government aircraft.

[00:25:39]While this specific reprimand relies on a single source, the official White House response remains a matter of public record. When directly questioned about the allegations, a spokesperson offered vague praise for Patel's law enforcement record while strategically avoiding any specific defense against the claims. Whatever private fury existed behind closed doors ultimately resulted in zero public disciplinary consequences. When examining this totality of circumstances, a disturbing pattern of deliberate evasion and institutional decay becomes impossible to ignore. We witness a Senate highly capable of swift unified action on national security threats evidenced by their unanimous passage of the Judicial Security Bill suddenly paralyzed when tasked with holding an agency director accountable. We observe the DEA actively expanding its global footprint to shield American communities juxtaposed against an FBI director who gives a dismissive one-word denial regarding the systematic dismantling of a critical counterintelligence unit on the eve of a foreign war, a denial the oversight committee swallowed without hesitation. The core issue moving forward is a catastrophic failure of accountability. Because director Patel was not speaking under oath during this testimony, his statements carry absolutely no legal threat of perjury. If the extensive investigative reporting holds true, Patel announced the creation of a superficial new mission center without reinstating the highly trained experts he purged. His unverified claim of a 47% arrest increase does not organically replace the lost institutional knowledge and embedding county sheriffs will never replicate the sophisticated tradecraft required to navigate complex international espionage. The vital deeply entrenched human sources that CBS reported would inevitably vanish are likely already gone, taking crucial intelligence with them. What played out before the Senate was not rigorous oversight, it was an abdication of duty.

[00:27:50]Thank you for reading and please leave a comment below to share your perspective on this massive breakdown in administrative accountability.