‘Misplaced priorities’: Chaos as FBI agents carpooled to a mass shooting while Kash Patel used the jet for personal travel

FBI Director Kash Patel has been a magnet for controversy throughout his tenure. Now, according to a whistleblower, Patel recently held back the agency’s response to the mass shooting at Brown University due to what was described as “misplaced priorities and poor management” of FBI resources.

At this point, Patel is known more for his public reputation for partying than for actually stopping crime. Just recently, he was seen in the locker room of the U.S. ice hockey team celebrating with athletes at the Winter Olympics, acting as though he had won a gold medal himself. It’s fair to say, then, that this whistleblower could not have come forward at a worse time for Patel.

Reportedly, when the shooting occurred at Brown University, Patel was in South Florida with one of the agency’s two available jets. The other jet was being held under Patel’s direct order for a team that would not normally respond to mass shootings. As a result, the FBI agents tasked with collecting evidence from the scene had to drive from Rhode Island overnight, through a snowstorm, with the expectation of arriving the following morning.

According to MS Now, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., wrote to the Government Accountability Office and the Justice Department’s inspector general, stating, “The Director’s misplaced priorities and poor management of the FBI’s resources — including its aircraft — also harmed the FBI’s ability to respond to the shooting at Brown University on December 13, 2025.”

Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he received a full account of the circumstances that allegedly left the FBI without an available jet to respond promptly. He is now accusing Patel of undermining the agency’s critical functions. The senator added, “Since his confirmation as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Kash Patel has seemingly engaged in what amounts to irresponsible joyriding on DOJ and FBI-operated aircraft at the expense of the American taxpayer and to the detriment of ongoing Bureau operations.”

Whistleblowers, who chose to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, said Patel ordered the Hostage Rescue Team to be placed on standby instead of immediately responding. Typically, SWAT agents from nearby field offices — particularly Boston and New York — would be deployed to provide support. Instead, Patel opted for the Quantico, Virginia-based team, a decision that reportedly left many within the FBI confused.

Patel has also faced intense criticism over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. Multiple experts have weighed in on how the situation should have been approached. Patel, however, said on podcasts and under oath that he saw no need to release any Epstein-related files because he wanted to protect victims and believed Epstein acted alone. Those claims have not aged well, and trust in Patel — and by extension the FBI — is now at an all-time low.

Still, FBI spokesman Ben Williamson pushed back on the whistleblower’s account, saying the situation had been exaggerated. “If the Director happens to be out of town, he always offers the plane if needed anyway — and did so here. It wasn’t needed,” Williamson said. He added that the shooting “was not immediately a case with federal nexus.”