Kash Patel’s trip to Hawaii last summer was supposed to be fairly straightforward.
A few meetings with local law enforcement. A visit to the FBI’s Honolulu field office. The usual photos of important-looking people standing around in polo shirts beside flags. All very standard stuff.
Instead, months later, the FBI director has found himself at the centre of a row involving snorkelling gear, one of America’s most sacred military memorials, and a lot of deeply unhappy veterans.
According to the Associated Press, emails show Patel was granted rare access to snorkel above the wreck of the USS Arizona during a two-day stop in Hawaii last August.
The battleship was sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. More than 900 crewmen are still entombed within the wreck.
Which means this isn’t really the sort of place most people associate with a leisurely dip in a pair of flippers.
Snorkelling and diving around the Arizona are both generally banned. Exceptions are usually limited to National Park Service crews, marine archaeologists and specialist teams monitoring the condition of the wreck beneath the water.
Some dives have also taken place over the years to inter the ashes of surviving crew members who wanted to be buried alongside their shipmates.
Beyond that, access is extremely limited. As you might imagine.
AP reported that dignitaries and senior officials have occasionally been allowed to swim at the site since at least the Obama administration. Even so, former FBI directors dating back to at least 1993 are not believed to have taken part in similar excursions.
One former government diver told the news outlet that it was very unusual for anyone not directly connected to the memorial to be granted access because of the security, safety and logistical issues involved.
The dives also come with obvious sensitivities considering where they’re taking place.
Marine veteran Hack Albertson was among those furious about Patel’s outing. He compared the idea of political figures swimming above the wreck to ‘having a bachelor party at a church’.
According to reports, military officials quietly arranged logistics for the excursion. Snorkellers were reportedly instructed not to touch the wreck or make contact with the vessel during the swim.
The National Park Service, which jointly oversees the memorial with the Navy, said it had no involvement in organising Patel’s session.
The FBI has also faced criticism for not publicly mentioning the snorkelling trip at the time. While the bureau highlighted Patel’s official meetings in Hawaii, the Arizona visit was left out entirely.
An FBI spokesperson later said Patel had been hosted at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam by regional commanders ‘as they commonly do with US government officials on official travel’.
The bureau added that the Hawaii stop formed part of Patel’s wider national security engagements linked to visits to Australia, New Zealand, the Honolulu field office and the Department of Defense.
Critics say that the Pearl Harbor controversy adds to growing questions surrounding Patel’s judgement and use of government resources.
Stacey Young, founder of Justice Connection, said that the episode showed a pattern of the FBI director finding ‘unseemly distractions’ instead of remaining focused on national security responsibilities.
Patel’s time as FBI director has already generated a steady stream of headlines unrelated to actual FBI work. Earlier this year, footage of him drinking beer and celebrating with the US men’s hockey team after their Winter Olympics win in Milan spread widely online.
NBC News later reported that the locker-room scenes reportedly irritated Donald Trump. Patel defended the trip, insisting it had been ‘purposely planned’ as part of a cybercrime investigation involving Italian authorities.
He has also denied allegations published by The Atlantic concerning drinking and unexplained absences, later filing a $250million defamation lawsuit against the magazine.