Kash Back: FBI boss Patel’s jet use on par with predecessors but his changes are saving tax dollars

FBI Director Kash Patel’s use of a government jet, required by federal policy, is largely in line with that of his two immediate predecessors, but he has taken steps to save taxpayers significant money by avoiding commercial airports and their expensive landing fees when possible, according to flight logs reviewed by Just the News.

Patel's travel has been the subject of a whisper campaign in Washington circles echoed by legacy news sites since he took office in late February, but the flight logs show he actually has flown the FBI jet slightly less often than ex-Director James Comey and slightly more than his immediate predecessor Christopher Wray.

Overall, the logs show Comey was the most prodigious air traveler, averaging roughly 2.58 flights per week, compared to Patel at 2.48 weekly flights and Wray at 1.98 flights per week. 

Private flights required for security reasons since 9/11

FBI directors, like the attorney general, have been required in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to use a government jet instead of commercial flights for security reasons.

Over the years, both Wray's personal travels aboard the jet and Mueller's commandeering of a counter-terrorism jet have stirred controversy. Similar whispers began this summer when Patel took the FBI jet to Las Vegas, where his home is located, and to Nashville, where his country music singer girlfriend lives.

The logs show Patel's trips were far more frequently for official business than personal travel. In addition, he used Reagan National Airport far less frequently than his predecessor, something lawmakers in Congress had been recommending for years to save on expensive landing and hangar fees.

FBI spokesman Ben Williamson said on X in late October that the criticisms of Patel’s travel “are disingenuous and dumb.”

“FBI Directors are ‘required use travelers’ under federal regulations — meaning they are mandated by Congress to travel on a government plane, even on personal travel,” Williamson said. “They’re actually barred from flying commercial. The reason for this is to maintain access to secure communications equipment in the event of an emergency.”

Patel pays reimbursement in advance, FBI says

Williamson also stressed that “on personal travel, the Director pays a reimbursement in advance — strictly following OMB [Office of Management and Budget] rules.”

“Kash himself has significantly limited personal travel — but he’s allowed to take personal time on occasion to see family, friends, or his longtime girlfriend,” the FBI spokesman said. “He doesn’t do it often. He works far more full weekends than he does otherwise. And maybe most importantly - ask anyone who works for him, he’s on duty 24/7 regardless.”

The website Flight Radar 24 provides data on the flights of the Gulfstream G550 operated by the Justice Department, which Patel uses to travel.

Left-wing outlets such as The Daily Beast and The Bulwark have harshly criticized Patel’s use of the jet, as has journalist Michael Isikoff, known for relying on British ex-spy Christopher Steele and his discredited dossier during his reporting in 2016. Isikoff is also notorious for publishing a fake story in Newsweek in 2005 that alleged that U.S. servicemen flushed Korans down the toilet at Guantánamo Bay, sparking riots that killed at least 17 people. Newsweek was forced to retract the story.

It was reported by CBS News in May that Senate Democrats had asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office to look into Patel’s personal travel on the government-owned plane.

Predecessors' flight records

Comey, who was FBI director from early September 2013 during the Obama administration to early May 2017 when he was fired by President Donald Trump, used the FBI jet for an estimated total of 497 total flights during his tenure. Comey lived in McLean, Va., just outside the nation’s capital while he was FBI director during his 1,344 days in office, so he did not need to use the plane to fly home. The FBI records indicate that Comey flew into or out of Reagan National Airport 249 times as FBI chief.

Wray served as FBI chief starting in early August 2017 during the first Trump administration until his resignation in early January 2025 at the end of the Biden administration. During his 2,727 days in office, he went on 774 total flights, according to the bureau records. This included 114 flights to Atlanta — where Wray had his family home — as well as ten flights to Adirondack Regional Airport in Saranac Lake in upstate New York, where Wray’s family had a vacation home.

The records show Wray flew into or out of Reagan National Airport an estimated 344 times and into or out of Manassas Regional Airport in northern Virginia an estimated 85 times.

Patel took office in late February during the second Trump administration, and the flight logs produced by the FBI lists the flights the bureau says the bureau chief took from early March to early November. During his roughly 37 weeks in office, the FBI data lists 92 total flights.

Among the trips by Patel, six flights are listed as heading to Nashville — where Patel’s girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, lives — and one flight is listed as destined for State College in Pennsylvania — where Patel watched Wilkins sing the national anthem at a wrestling event at Penn State University. Patel has also taken ten trips to Las Vegas, where he reportedly has a home.

Patel defends life partner against partisan attacks

Patel made two trips to Nashville in March, a trip there in August, and multiple trips there in October, according to the records.

“The disgustingly baseless attacks against Alexis — a true patriot and the woman I’m proud to call my partner in life — are beyond pathetic. She is a rock-solid conservative and a country music sensation who has done more for this nation than most will in ten lifetimes. I’m so blessed she’s in my life,” Patel said on X in early November. “Attacking her isn’t just wrong — it’s cowardly and jeopardizes our safety. My love of family will always be my cornerstone, and you will never tear that down or keep me from them.”

Patel's trips to Las Vegas occurred twice in March, and once in April, May, June, July, September, and October, according to FBI records, and some of these visits happened amidst trips elsewhere that involved official business.

He has also used the jet for trips to Scotland, Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere.

FBI records indicate that, when Patel flies into or out of the nation’s capital, he has used Manassas Regional Airport 23 times and Reagan National Airport just six times.

The FBI contends that Patel’s decision to usually fly out of the nation’s capital using a regional government-owned airport, usually doing this rather than flying out of Reagan National Airport, has likely saved the government substantial money.

Williamson argued on X in late October that “this FBI has taken steps to dramatically reduce costs of Director travel, both official and personal” and that “when Kash flies, he chooses to take a government airfield vs. airports like DCA, because the government option is about 2.5x cheaper.” Williamson argued that “this is a choice that ends up saving millions in the long haul.”

Patel's use costs $2.2 million less than Wray's, FBI says

The FBI spokesman argued that Wray’s decision to fly into and out of Reagan National Airport hundreds of times, often rather than a government-owned regional airport, cost $3.9 million, making it $2.2 million more expensive than a government-owned airfield would have been.

Williamson also said Comey’s decision to fly out of Reagan National Airport hundreds of times cost over $1.8 million, which would’ve been $1 million cheaper had he flown out of a regional government-owned airport, as Patel often does.

Williamson argued on X in early November that there is “zero basis that he [Patel] is abusing the jet” and noted that “including weekends, Kash has flown on personal trips (home to Vegas for example) about a dozen times since February — most times limited to a couple days — whereas many who relocate for government service go home almost every weekend.” The bureau spokesman added that “most of the flights you see from FBI are Director Patel visiting the field — which is what he promised to do in his Senate confirmation.”

The FBI records indicate that Patel has made at least nine visits to FBI field offices, going to the bureau field office in Nashville in March, the one in Miami in April, Oklahoma City in May, Austin in June, Minneapolis and Honolulu in July, Omaha in August, and Dallas and New Orleans in September.

The records also indicate Patel has taken twelve trips to official events — five in April, including to the FBI annual hockey tournament and to West Point, two in June, and five in September, including the 9/11 memorial service in New York City and a meeting with Google and Meta in San Francisco. Patel also went on six international trips, including London in May, Australia and New Zealand in July, and an Asia trip to Japan, South Korea, and China in November.

The FBI chief has also made six trips to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia to attend graduation ceremonies, including in March, April, September, and October.

The FBI has said that Patel has taken fourteen purely personal trips and seven that were both personal and business in nature, and has said that the majority of personal trips were over the weekend and often lasted just a couple of days.

Patel is by no means the only FBI director whose flights have drawn scrutiny.

Republicans demanded answers on Wray’s use of DOJ jets for personal use following reports that he decided to leave early during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 2022 to fly to Upstate New York for vacation.

The flight in question occurred in early August 2022, the day before FBI investigators sought and received approval for a raid on then-former President Trump’s resort home in Mar-a-Lago. 

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, then the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed frustration with Wray leaving the early August hearing before Republicans had gotten to do a second round of questions.

“If it’s your business trip, you’ve got your own plane. Can’t it wait a while?” Grassley asked. Wray replied, “Sorry. To be honest, I tried to make my break as fast as I could to get right back out here.” Grassley pointed out that Wray had taken more than a five-minute break, and Wray chuckled.

The 2022 hearing was on Aug. 4, the FBI warrant was approved Aug. 5, and the Mar-a-Lago search happened after the weekend, on Aug. 8.

House Republicans told Wray at the time that he should hand over a host of documents “to assist us in conducting oversight of your use of government aircraft for personal travel, your reimbursements of funds to federal taxpayers, and your compliance with applicable federal regulations.” The requested records included all documents related to when, where, and for what purpose he went on flights, a full accounting of the cost, and proof of his reimbursements for political or personal travel.

Wray admitted in November 2022 that he left the August 2022 hearing early to jump on an FBI jet for a vacation in the Adirondacks. “I took a flight to go visit my family as had been previously arranged in conjunction with the leadership of the committee,” Wray said.

Wray added, “I will turn over information related to my use of the plane. The use of the plane, I am required — not just permitted, required, even for personal travel — to use the FBI plane,” Wray said at the time. “And I pay every single time that I use the plane for personal use.”

Mueller, Sessions' use under scrutiny

The Washington Post reported in 2007 that “the jet that the FBI originally sold to lawmakers in the late 1990s as an essential tool for battling terrorism is now routinely used to ferry FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to speeches, public appearances and field office visits.” The outlet said that “Mueller's travel now accounts for nearly a quarter of the flight time for the lone FBI jet able to make international flights” and that “FBI officials acknowledged to The Washington Post that Mueller's use of the Gulfstream is a marked departure from the travel practices of his predecessors.”

FBI Director William Sessions became the first bureau chief to be fired when then-President Bill Clinton cashiered him in 1993.

The DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility released a report in 1993 detailing the findings of a joint DOJ-FBI investigation into Sessions, which included his abuse of government flights, but also much more.

The report said that “the Director abused government travel for personal travel” and that he also “participated in a sham arrangement designed to evade income taxes on his government-provided home-to-work transportation.”

“The Director improperly used government funds to install a fence at his residence. … The Director repeatedly transported non-official passengers in his official limousine and other FBI vehicles in violation of applicable law [...] The Director has systematically abused his security detail for personal purposes,” the report said.

The report continued to allege that “The Director [Sessions] refused to cooperate in, and affirmatively blocked, our investigation into allegations that he received an improper ‘sweetheart deal’ from a bank on his home mortgage. … We found that the Director permitted his wife to perform a role in Bureau management and affairs that was entirely inappropriate for a private citizen.”