FBI Director Kash Patel went snorkeling over the sunken battleship USS Arizona during a previously undisclosed second stop in Hawaii last August, according to internal government emails obtained by The Associated Press. The “VIP snorkel,” as it was described in military correspondence, brought Patel to the watery grave of more than 900 sailors and Marines at Pearl Harbor, a site where recreational swimming and diving are generally prohibited.
The FBI had said Patel was not on vacation during his Hawaii stop, highlighting his walking tour of the bureau’s Honolulu field office and meetings with local law enforcement in news releases. Left out of those statements was the snorkeling excursion and the fact that Patel returned to Hawaii for two days on his way back from official visits to Australia and New Zealand.
The Navy confirmed the outing. “Participants in Patel’s swim were told ‘not to touch/come into contact with’ the sunken ship in any way,” said Navy spokesperson Capt. Jodie Cornell. She added that the snorkelers were also briefed on “the historic significance of the Memorial as the final resting place/tomb for hundreds of service members.” But Cornell said the Navy could not determine who initiated the outing, and the National Park Service, which co-administers the memorial, said it was not involved.
The FBI said in a statement that top regional commanders hosted Patel at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam “as they commonly do with US government officials on official travel,” and that the visit was “part of the Director’s public national security engagements last August with counterparts in New Zealand, Australia, our Honolulu Field Office, and the Department of War.”
Stacey Young, who founded Justice Connection, a network of former federal prosecutors and agents, said the excursion “fits a pattern of Director Patel getting tangled up in unseemly distractions — this time at a site commemorating the second deadliest attack in U.S. history — instead of staying laser-focused on keeping Americans safe.”
Patel has faced repeated questions over his use of the FBI’s Gulfstream jet. The scrutiny intensified in February after video surfaced of him celebrating with members of the U.S. men’s hockey team in the locker room after their gold medal win at the Winter Olympics in Milan. Patel has defended that trip as “purposely planned” in connection with a cybercrime investigation involving Italian authorities.
At Pearl Harbor, some who work at the memorial said the snorkeling was inappropriate. “It’s like having a bachelor party at a church. It’s hallowed ground,” said Hack Albertson, a Marine veteran who dives on the Arizona annually with a team from the Paralyzed Veterans of America to check on the wreck. Others were less critical. Deidre Kelley, national president of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, wrote in an email that she had “not heard of anyone who would object to these visits as they are very rare and there aren’t any survivors of the Arizona left alive.”
A former government diver who worked at the memorial and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution said it was unusual for a director or anyone not connected to the memorial to be granted such access because the swims come with physical risks and present security, safety and logistical challenges. The diver said that while a handful of dignitaries have been permitted to snorkel since at least the Obama administration, no former FBI director going back to 1993 had done so.
Flight tracking data for the FBI director’s Gulfstream G550 showed the jet remained on the island for two nights after the official portion of Patel’s trip before flying on to Las Vegas, Patel’s adopted hometown. It is not clear what else Patel did during the second stop. The FBI did not answer questions about the snorkeling session beyond its statement.
During the same trip, Patel stopped in Wellington, New Zealand, to open the FBI’s first standalone office in the country. That visit sparked controversy after the AP revealed that Patel had gifted that country’s police and spy chiefs inoperable 3D-printed replica pistols that were illegal to possess under local gun laws.