Kash Patel Faces Backlash For Flying To Winter Olympics, Partying It Up With Team USA | EUROtoday

FBI Director Kash Patel is dealing with backlash for reportedly utilizing an FBI jet to go to Italy the place he spent the ultimate days of the Winter Olympics watching hockey and, later, celebrating Team USA’s gold medal win over Canada on Sunday.

Patel, a hockey fan since his childhood, was noticed on the U.S. males’s semifinal sport in opposition to Slovakia, and later on the ultimate, the place he was seen celebrating with Team USA middle Dylan Larkin within the locker room after America’s time beyond regulation win.

“Congratulations Team USA,” Patel appeared to say whereas making a shaka signal together with his hand throughout Larkin’s post-game Instagram Live feed, per a clip shared by MS NOW’s Ken Dilanian.

On Sunday, he took to social media to comment on Team USA’s golden accomplishment. The conspiracy-pushing FBI director additionally shared snaps from the post-game celebration, together with one which exhibits him cracking a smile alongside coach Mike Sullivan.

Social media customers swiftly slammed Patel over the journey, with a quantity notably pointing to the Justice Department’s controversial, gradual drip launch of the Jeffrey Epstein recordsdata.

“Are the Epstein files there?” X consumer Gerald Celente questioned.

Another consumer, Hannah Cox, reacted to Patel’s Instagram Live selfie with Larkin, merely writing, “Meanwhile, solving no sex crimes mind you.”

“Why is Kash Patel in the locker room?” requested @AmanitaFugax on X. “They don’t even try to hide their corruption and self enrichment anymore. This guy is a podcasting grifter. He should not be anywhere near public service.”

On Thursday, Patel headed to the Milan Cortina Games on the FBI’s Gulfstream jet, sources informed MS NOW’s Dilanian and Carol Leonnig. The report estimated that Patel’s journey to Milan value taxpayers as a lot as $75,000.

FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson confirmed the journey however argued it was “personal” in nature, claiming it was deliberate months upfront, and Patel was there to satisfy with Italian officers for conferences and briefings associated to authorities duties.

Williamson went on to defend the journey by claiming that the FBI performs a “major role” in safety for the Games in addition to the World Cup, which is about to go down this summer time within the States.

“So we have a U.S. consulate briefing on Olympic security and current FBI posture, as well as thanking FBI personnel on the ground,” he wrote.

Patel has beforehand come underneath hearth for utilizing an FBI jet to go see his girlfriend, nation singer Alexis Wilkins, carry out at a wrestling occasion in Pennsylvania final yr.

He later defended the transfer, arguing that he’s not allowed to fly industrial and declaring that his associate is “a rock-solid conservative and a country music sensation who has done more for this nation than most will in ten lifetimes.”

Patel is the primary identified lively FBI director to make an Olympic-related journey since Robert Mueller did so in 2003, though that journey occurred a number of months previous to the beginning of the 2004 Athens Games, MSNBC famous.