Emails show FBI Director Kash Patel’s Hawaii trip included ‘VIP snorkel’ at a Pearl Harbor memorial

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Kaş Patel When he visited Hawaii last summer, the FBI was careful to note that the director was not on vacation and highlighted his walking tour of the bureau’s Honolulu field office and meetings with local law enforcement.

Left out of the FBI’s news releases was a private trip in which Patel participated days later in what government officials described as a “VIP snorkel.” USS Arizona On a trip coordinated by the military. The sunken warship buried more than 900 sailors and sailors. Pearl Harbor.

The swimming incident, revealed in government emails obtained by The Associated Press, came to light at a time when criticism of Patel’s use of the FBI plane and global travel had clouded the picture. professional responsibilities related to leisure activities. The FBI did not disclose the snorkeling session or whether Patel returned to Hawaii for two days after his first stop on the island.

“This fits a pattern of Director Patel engaging in unseemly distractions, this time at a venue commemorating the second deadliest attack in U.S. history, rather than focusing on keeping Americans safe,” said Stacey Young, founder of Justice Connection, a network called Justice Connection. former federal prosecutors and agents Those who defend the independence of the Ministry of Justice.

With a few exceptions, snorkeling and diving are prohibited on the USS Arizona. Now a military cemetery accessible only by boat, the battleship has stood as one of the country’s most sacred sites ever since. Japan bombed and sank In 1941. Marine archaeologists and teams from the National Park Service occasionally dive at the monument to survey the condition of the wreck. Other dives were made among the remains of Arizona survivors seeking eternal rest with their former shipmates.

Still, at least since the Obama administration, the Navy and park service have quietly allowed a handful of dignitaries, including military and government officials responsible for managing the monument, to swim at the site. The Navy and park services declined to provide details of what such trips are allowed.

Former FBI directors visited Pearl Harbor on official business, but none went snorkeling to the memorial until at least 1993, according to people familiar with their activities and a former government diver who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. The diver said it was unusual for a manager or anyone not affiliated with the monument to be granted such access because swimming poses physical risks and poses safety, security and logistical challenges.

Patel has faced scrutiny over her leadership over the past year as her use of government resources emerged as a recurring story of her tenure. The issue flared further in February when Patel’s video emerged partying in the locker room With members of the U.S. men’s hockey team after winning the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Milan. Patel defended the trip just this week as “deliberately planned” in connection with a cybercrime investigation involving Italian authorities.

Unanswered questions about private trip

Patel’s trip took place in August, when he spent two days in Hawaii on his return to the United States from official visits to Australia and New Zealand. On his way to these countries, he stopped in Hawaii to visit the Honolulu field office. An FBI spokesman did not answer questions about the snorkeling session.

Senior regional commanders hosted Patel at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam “as they typically do for U.S. government officials on official travel,” the FBI said in a statement. The visit to Pearl Harbor “was part of the Director’s public national security discussions last August with counterparts in New Zealand, Australia, the Honolulu Field Office and the War Department,” the spokesman said.

It was unclear how Patel’s snorkeling session was arranged. Navy spokeswoman Capt. Jodie Cornell confirmed the trip but said the agency has not been able to determine who initiated it.

Cornell said participants in Patel’s swim were told not to “touch/contact” the sunken ship in any way. He added that snorkelers were also informed about the “historic significance of the Monument as the final resting place/tomb for hundreds of soldiers.”

‘VIP Snorkeling’

Government emails obtained by the AP through a public records request show military officials coordinated logistics and personnel for “VIP Snorkeling.”

The National Park Service, which manages the area in coordination with the Navy, told the AP it was not involved in Patel’s swim and declined to comment on the trip. He also refused to answer questions about other such trips.

According to the former government diver, Navy admirals and defense and home affairs ministers were among those invited to snorkel. Diver added that the swims were aimed at providing authorities with information about the monument and its operations.

The Navy declined to provide examples or numbers showing how often it conducts such trips. He described Patel’s trip as “not an anomaly”.

Hack Albertson, a former Marine, is part of a select group of Paralyzed Veterans of America who train to dive into Arizona each year to check the condition of the wreck. He said it was inappropriate to snorkel or dive at a memorial service for Patel and other political figures.

“It’s like having a bachelorette party in church. It’s a sacred place,” he said. “It needs to be treated with the seriousness it deserves.”

Some family members do not object to snorkeling

While some family members of Pearl Harbor survivors said they were not bothered by such official trips, others said they wanted snorkeling to be allowed in the area. They said this was not allowed.

“I have never heard of anyone who would object to these visits because they are so rare and no survivors have survived in Arizona,” Deidre Kelley, national president of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, wrote in an email. “Your kids may have some objections, but I haven’t heard any of them.”

Patel visited Pearl Harbor several years ago during a trip to Hawaii while serving as chief of staff to then-acting defense secretary Christopher Miller, the former government diver said.

Miller said he was snorkeling over Arizona during an official visit to the base, but Patel was not on the trip. Miller said he was invited to snorkel by regional military officials and was told such a tour was for “special occasions and special visitors, of which you are one.” He called it a “meaningful” experience.

“It was a very somber and meaningful event,” Miller said in an interview. “It was a historical tour. It wasn’t anything for fun.”

FBI won’t discuss Patel’s return to Hawaii

It’s unclear what else Patel was doing during his second stop in Hawaii beyond a snorkeling trip.

Flight tracking data for the Gulfstream G550 often used by the FBI director shows that the jet spent two nights on the island during that stay before flying to Patel’s adopted hometown of Las Vegas. The jet’s published range is about 7,700 miles (12,391 kilometers), meaning the plane should refuel somewhere between New Zealand and Washington.

The snorkeling session took place a day after Patel stopped by Wellington to open the FBI’s first branch office. independent office in New Zealand. The visit sparked controversy after the AP revealed that Patel had gifted replicas of 3D-printed, non-working handguns to that country’s police and spy bosses. illegal to possess according to local gun laws.

__ Mustian reported from New York. Associated Press writers Audrey McAvoy and Konstantin Toropin in Honolulu, Hawaii, contributed to this report.