FBI Director Kash Patel pushed back against questions about his personal travel on Tuesday by contrasting it with that of his predecessors James Comey and Christopher Wray, as Senate Democrats pressed him for answers during a heated oversight hearing about taxpayer-funded trips and leisure activities.
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) questioned Patel about a letter she previously sent seeking details of his personal travel, recreational activities during official trips, and their costs. She said she had received no response.
Patel said he had already provided a full analysis of his travel records and those of previous FBI directors, describing the disclosure as an unprecedented transparency push that neither of his predecessors provided.
“It’s already been responded to,” Patel told Hirono. “That letter is public.”
When Hirono asked him to produce the response, Patel replied, “It’s public. Go look it up.”
It was not immediately clear which disclosure Patel was referring to. The Washington Examiner contacted the FBI for more up-to-date figures about Patel’s leisure travels, which he said were significantly less than those of Wray or Comey.
The FBI previously provided information about the FBI jet’s flight records last winter. A Nov. 9 report by Just the News counted 92 flights total at the time for Patel from early March through early November, compared with 774 during Wray’s tenure and 497 during Comey’s.
Meanwhile, the committee’s ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) claimed Democrats received a July 20 letter to Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) concerning aircraft use the night before the hearing on Tuesday.
“To say that this was a public letter, it may have started being public last night, but we had never seen it before,” Durbin said.
Hirono’s questions followed revelations that Patel participated in a “VIP snorkeling” excursion around the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor during an August 2025 trip. She described a broader pattern of using public resources for personal benefit.
Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) separately questioned Patel’s February trip to Italy, where he celebrated with the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team after its gold medal victory.
The FBI director is required by executive branch policy to use government aircraft, including for personal travel, because of security and communications needs.
Tempers flared later on in the hearing when Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) accused Patel of refusing to answer oversight questions and criticized Grassley’s handling of the hearing.
“He’s an incompetent lackey,” Booker said, calling Patel “an embarrassment to the agency” who is more interested in “doing keg stands and chugging with friends.”
Patel’s spokesman Ben Williamson hit Booker back on X, saying, “I don’t often make the mistake of tuning into Senate hearings but every time I do I am immediately reminded of what an absolute loser Cory Booker is.”
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Grassley responded with frustration and urged Booker to control his temper. He defended his scrutiny of Patel’s travel, saying Patel had been more responsive than his predecessors. The hearing had continued for over four hours as of Tuesday afternoon.
“He’s agreed to provide access to Wray and Comey’s travel records and access to his,” Grassley said. “There are some issues to be worked out.”