Kash Patel’s Jet-Setting Delayed FBI Probe Into Charlie Kirk’s Death

FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal reliance on the bureau’s jet fleet isn’t just costing taxpayers money—it’s also significantly interfering with the agency’s work.

A whistleblower revealed Tuesday that the FBI’s investigation into Charlie Kirk’s assassination was waylaid by at least a day because of a plane and pilot shortage caused by the director’s unofficial escapades, reported CBS News.

Patel’s poor management of resources continued for months, interfering with another FBI investigation on December 13, when the FBI’s shooting reconstruction team was unable to immediately respond to a shooting at Brown University due to a lack of available bureau planes at an airport in Richmond, Virginia, according to Senator Dick Durbin.

It’s a hypocritical development for Patel, a conspiracy podcaster-turned-government official who used to regularly chastise politicians for needless spending before he joined the ranks of the Trump administration. Patel relentlessly hounded the financial behavior of the man who previously filled his role—former FBI Director Chris Wray—even arguing in 2023 that the FBI should “ground” Wray’s private jet “that he pays for with taxpayer dollars to hop around the country.”

But these are far from the only examples in which Patel has used the bureau’s equipment as his personal play toys.

In December, top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee opened an investigation into Patel after it became clear that he took multiple flights on a $60 million government jet in order to see his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins. The jet owner’s listed address, according to its FAA registration, was the FBI’s national headquarters in Washington. Days later, Patel reportedly took another FBI plane to Texas to visit some friends.

Patel has been riding on the country’s dime since he was sworn in as the face of America’s largest national law enforcement agency. Weeks after a Republican-controlled Senate gave Patel the green light to run the FBI, he took several jaunts to different areas of the country, including Las Vegas and Nashville, a lifestyle he hasn’t been shy to advertise amongst the rank and file of the federal bureau.

“If you have golf, hockey, fishing, or hunting and beautiful sights, you’re going to see a lot of me,” Patel once said, according to an internal source that shared the comments with Durbin.

Patel’s flight history became a subject of intense criticism again on Sunday, when a video was leaked of the FBI director celebrating the U.S. men’s hockey Olympic gold medal win. In the video, Patel is seen chugging beers inside the boy’s locker room in Milan, causing some Americans to question if Patel had spent more of their money to trek across the Atlantic for a wildly unnecessary excursion.

The 2028 presidential election could see a painfully familiar face return to the campaign trail.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris told podcaster Sharon McMahon on Tuesday that she has not yet ruled out the possibility of yet another presidential campaign.

“Will you run again?” asked McMahon, plainly.

“I haven’t decided,” Harris said.

“You’re still thinking about it?” McMahon pressed.

“I might,” Harris offered.

Harris served as California’s senator from 2017 to 2021, when she was sworn in as the first female vice president alongside Joe Biden.

She has failed twice to enter the White House on her own terms. She dropped her first presidential bid in late 2019 due to low polling numbers and dwindling financial resources. Harris’s luck changed drastically in 2024, when the Democratic National Committee formally backed her as their candidate of choice to face off against Donald Trump—though her campaign blitz, which was sabotaged in part by Biden’s reluctance to leave office, wasn’t enough. Harris ultimately lost that election by more than two million votes.

A secret postmortem of Harris’s performance by the DNC found that her major issue with voters stemmed from Biden’s poor handling of Israel’s massacre in Gaza and her own refusal to break with him on it, a policy choice that fundamentally soured support from progressives and young voters.

The DNC report has been under lock and key since the loss, but details of its findings became public on Sunday after staffers with the pro-Palestinian IMEU Policy Project met with the project’s authors in a closed-door meeting.

“The DNC shared with us that their own data also found that policy was, in their words, a ‘net-negative’ in the 2024 election,” Hamid Bendass, a spokesperson for the IMEU Policy Project, told Axios.

The Democratic Party further incensed Gaza’s sympathizers when it rebuked a request to feature a pro-Palestinian speaker at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. In lieu of a dedicated activist to call for an end to the genocide, the DNC had major party figureheads, such as Biden and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, make quick mention of the ongoing conflict, while efforts to cover up mass protests of the American-funded atrocities quietly took place behind the scenes.

Two years on, the scene is shaping up in an all too familiar way: Pro-Israel groups have already spent millions funding the 2026 Democratic primaries, while Trump and his allies chip away at a plan to redevelop Gaza into a Dubai-style luxury resort.

The Trump administration is considering requiring banks to track clients’ citizenship status in order to find more people to deport.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House is looking at signing an executive order or some other means to compel financial institutions to gather the data. Banks would likely have to ask for identifying documents, such as passports, from both new and existing customers who want a bank account in the U.S.

Banks are reportedly alarmed at such an executive order, according to the Journal. They already have legal requirements to collect certain information for law enforcement to fight against financial crimes, including money laundering. But those requirements don’t specifically include gathering citizenship information, and there’s no law against noncitizens opening bank accounts in the U.S.

A White House official told the publication that the new requirement hasn’t been approved and is only being discussed within the Treasury. A division of the Treasury department that enforces laws against money laundering and counterterrorism financing could be used to collect the information, an unnamed source told the Journal.

Last year, the Department of Homeland Security forced the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to turn over the personal information of immigrants enrolled in Medicaid, and the U.S. Postal Service has also been enlisted to identify targets. The goal seems to be not only increasing the number of deportations, but also to forcing all immigrants, even those with legal status, to the fringes of American society by making them afraid that basic services, government or otherwise, can be used against them.

The Department of Homeland Security is threatening to put legal observers monitoring ICE activity on a domestic terrorist watchlist, according to a new lawsuit. 

Politico, citing the lawsuit, reports that DHS agents used facial recognition technology and license plate readers to monitor observers in Maine who were keeping tabs on federal immigration agents. The federal law enforcement officers would then threaten protesters. 

The lawsuit against the department and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was filed Monday by two of those observers, Colleen Fagan and Elinor Hilton, who are hoping for an injunction that would stop the department from using the technology to threaten legal observers.

Hilton and Fagan allege that agents scanned their faces and license plates in two separate instances last month while they were recording ICE in Portland. In one occurrence, the lawsuit states that an agent told Hilton, “I hope you know that if you keep coming to things like this, you are going to be on a domestic terrorist watchlist. Then we’re going to come to your house later tonight.”

The lawsuit cited other Maine incidents documented in news articles, such as one ICE agent driving to a legal observer’s home and repeatedly honking their horn. Another time, a federal agent drove to the home of a protester and told her, “This is a warning. We know you live right here.”

The federal government is resorting to Orwellian means not just to identify people for deportation, but also to surveil protesters and legal observers who oppose the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. Companies specializing in surveillance, such as Flock, are being used to gather data, and the recent purchase of TikTok by Trump-friendly owner Skydance has ensured that the social video platform’s data is now in government hands too. 

ICE is currently using an app developed by Palantir that provides agents with a digital map containing potential deportation targets. That company also happens to be creating a master database in order to collect data on every single American. It seems the Trump administration is not above creating a police state to accomplish its goals.  

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Monday against New Jersey Governor “Mikie Sherill”—only no such person actually exists.

In a 21-page filing, the government misspelled the newly elected Democrat’s name five times. The government spelled it correctly only thrice, with two of those times being in quotes from other sources.

Earlier this month, Sherrill, with two r’s, signed an executive order barring Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from entering, accessing, or using nonpublic areas of state-owned property without first receiving a judicial warrant. Examples of nonpublic state property include government offices, childcare centers, residential medical facilities, and state university residence halls.

“Given ICE’s willingness to flout the Constitution and violently endanger communities—detaining children, arresting citizens, and even killing several innocent civilians—I will stand up for New Jerseyans’ right to be safe,” Sherrill said in a statement at the time.

In its lawsuit, the DOJ calls Sherrill’s executive order an “intolerable obstacle” to federal immigration enforcement, which “facially discriminates” against federal agents in violation of the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which prohibits a state from usurping Congress.

The mistake-laden filing is part of a wider trend of unprecedented prosecutorial missteps by Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, undermining numerous civil and criminal cases.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is considering suing billionaire Elon Musk for his assertion that she is actually under the thumb of the cartels she’s fighting.

Musk made the comment Monday while responding to a post on Sheinbaum denouncing all-out war against the cartels.

“Returning to the war against the narco is not an option,” Sheinbaum said in the clip from last year. “First, because it is outside the framework of the law. All of the right wing that fill their mouths [with] the words ‘rule of law’ and defend the war against the narco, the war against the narco is outside the law, because as I said or have said on several occasions, it is permission to kill without any trial.”

“She’s a cartel plant right?” a user replied to the clip, without providing any information about when or where it was from.

“She’s just saying what her cartel bosses tell her to say,” Musk said to the user. “Let’s just say that their punishment for disobedience is a little worse than a ‘performance improvement plan.’”

Sheinbaum told reporters in a press conference Tuesday that she was “considering whether to take legal action.”

Musk is making a massive accusation all while pushing misinformation—on the massive platform that he owns.

“Context matters: the video being used is an old clip on legal theory, while yesterday’s operation was a massive strategic win,” the Mexican Embassy in the U.S. posted in response to the video. “Recycling outdated clips to distract from a major blow to organized crime is how misinformation spreads. Don’t let them spin a victory into a conspiracy.”

This comes as recent cartel violence in Mexico has slowed after government security forces killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, or “El Mencho,” the country’s most wanted drug kingpin. Mexican Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla Trejo claimed on Monday that 80 percent of the nearly 25,000 weapons seized from cartels since October 2024 were from the United States—something Musk’s assertion completely ignores.

The president is expected to address economic growth, foreign policy, and immigration enforcement during his State of the Union address Tuesday evening—but his congressional allies are planning to tackle a whole lot more with the guests they’ve invited to witness the annual speech.

Republican lawmakers have so far invited:

• YouTuber Nick Shirley and independent journalist David Hoch

Both Shirley and Hoch worked on a YouTube video that inspired the conservative caucus to politically scapegoat Somali immigrants late last year.

In the widely circulated “investigation,” the pair visited a slew of Somali-run day care centers in Minnesota, arguing that closed sites had fraudulently accepted federal funding. It would later emerge that elements of Shirley’s report were incorrect or inadequately reported: At least two of the centers featured in his video had been closed for several years, according to Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families.

More than a dozen schemes have popped up in Minnesota’s safety net programs in recent years, many of them involving members of the state’s Somali population. But they haven’t gone unchecked: More than 90 Minnesotans were charged in federal fraud investigations that began under the Biden administration, at least 60 of which have resulted in convictions.

Regardless, the fallout of Shirley and Hoch’s work resulted in the loss of millions of dollars in child care funding, including a suspended $185 million from the Department of Health and Human Services. It also stirred a national services controversy in which predominantly blue states were accused of abusing federal funds for programs focused on child care and local poverty. In truth, states of all stripes across the nation have participated in benefits abuse, but not everyone shouldered the federal cuts. Instead, Donald Trump axed $10 billion from five Democratic states, including Minnesota.

• The entirety of the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team

Trump reportedly called House Leader Mike Johnson after the team’s incredible gold medal win on Sunday, urging the senior Republican to figure out how to squeeze the 25-player roster into the joint session of Congress.

Fascinatingly, the hockey players have already been involved in a MAGA world scandal in the two days since they won. Hours after they beat Canada, locker room videos leaked to ProPublica revealed that FBI Director Kash Patel participated in their post-game party, spurring questions about the ex-podcaster’s flagrant use of public funds.

Meanwhile, the U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team—which similarly took home gold after a dominant tournament run—rejected a similar offer. (Probably because Trump and the entire men’s hockey team insulted them.) Instead, the women will be partying in Las Vegas with Flavor Flav.

In his invite to the men’s team, Trump commented that he would “probably be impeached” if he didn’t extend the same offer to the women’s team.

• Seven-year-old Dalilah Coleman

Coleman was critically injured in a six-car pileup in southern California on June 20, 2024. She was 5 years old when a commercial 18-wheeler crashed into the car she was in. Coleman suffered a fractured skull, a broken femur, and a severe traumatic brain injury that left her in a coma for nearly a month, her parents told Fox News.

But Coleman’s story has since been used by far-right conservatives to illustrate the supposedly unsafe presence of undocumented immigrants due to the fact that the man behind the wheel of the semi truck, Partap Singh, was undocumented at the time of the collision. However, Singh was on the road with a valid driver’s license, issued to him by the state of California.

Ultimately, it was not local authorities who charged Singh. ICE agents arrested him in Fresno on August 29, 2025, and have since held him in the agency’s custody.

Coleman will be at the State of the Union address Tuesday evening, reported CBS News, though she will not be able to speak for herself.

“She has a TBI [traumatic brain injury],” Ileana Krause, Dalilah’s mother, told Fox News in September. “She is now diagnosed with cerebral palsy and global developmental delay. She doesn’t walk. She receives nutrition through a G-tube.”

Other Republican guests include:

• Evalea and Gary Beckstrom, the parents of Sarah Beckstrom, the 20-year-old National Guard member killed in Washington in December
• Claire Lai, the daughter of pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai (invited by Republican Representative Chris Smith)
• Two sheriffs (from Alabama and Ohio)

Meanwhile, Democrats are planning to bring their own assortment of guests to the evening’s speech. In attendance with the liberal caucus will be:

• Numerous Epstein victims/survivors
• Jesse Jackson’s family
• Mubashir Hussen and Aliya Rahman, two Minneapolis residents who were brutalized by federal agents (invited by Representative Ilhan Omar)
• Rick Woldenberg, Billy Walkowiak, and Sandy Washington, three CEOs whose businesses have been severely affected by the tariffs. Woldenberg was also a plaintiff in the Supreme Court tariffs case.
• Vonetta Rougier, a 71-year-old mother of three, whom Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries invited to highlight the reality of the country’s economic woes

More than 100 immigrants detained by ICE were stuck in a plane on the tarmac at Portsmouth International Airport in New Hampshire for more than 12 hours Monday in the midst of a heavy blizzard.

The plane, which took off from Harlingen, Texas, Sunday night, landed in Pease, New Hampshire, at 1 a.m., but couldn’t get to its terminal due to the weather. Officials at the Portsmouth airport told local TV station WMUR that they were only given 15 minutes notice that the flight, Omni Air International 4065, was arriving.

“Had we been informed in advance of their intent to land at PSM during the blizzard, we would have strongly advised against it and encouraged them to divert to another airport not being impacted by this severe winter storm,” Portsmouth officials said in a statement.

The officials said that the airport’s operator, Port City Air, is responsible for planning “for weather-related contingencies and required facilities and accommodations.” Port City Air said that the decision was not up to them, but rather ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.

“ICE-flight decisions are made by the US Department of Homeland Security. It is our legal obligation to safely service any flights into or out of the airport. Our operations remain open throughout this storm,” the company said in a statement.

The detainees were reportedly fed while the plane was stuck, with strong winds preventing the plane from even being towed. Finally, at 2:45 p.m. Monday, the plane was towed to its terminal. Detainees were taken off of the plane and into the terminal, which was closed to the public, and were again given food. But the plane had been sitting at the airport for so long that a new flight crew had to take over.

“Detainees are being provided catered meals, continuous access to drinking water, and appropriate restroom facilities for the duration of the delay,” a DHS spokesperson told the Boston Globe. “All required prescription medications are being supplied at no cost, and medical personnel are available to provide proper medical care. ICE personnel are conducting regular welfare checks to ensure everyone’s well-being, comfort, and dignity while awaiting departure.”

Passengers were held at the terminal until 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, when the plane took off again to head to its final destination, which has not been made public. That means that the passengers’ long journey is still not over. In past ICE deportation flights, passengers have been kept in shackles.

It appears that Trump administration officials have embarked on a spree of interviews with major publications in order to talk their boss out of a military strike against Iran.

In the last 72 hours, several stories were published undermining narratives that the U.S. is ready for war, observed Ali Ahmadi, an executive fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, in a post on X Tuesday.

Indeed, several stories cited anonymous sources familiar with Trump’s plans for Iran who warned about the potential for the United States to be dragged into a protracted conflict in the Middle East.

Two sources told Axios Monday that Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine warned Trump and other top officials about the risks of launching a military campaign against Iran. The Washington Post cited people familiar with discussions who’d told them the same thing. CBS News cited multiple sources who said that Trump was warned that military strikes against Iran wouldn’t guarantee a diplomatic deal. And The Wall Street Journal reported on the prolonged misery of sailors traveling aboard the U.S.S. Gerald Ford, after the Navy’s top admiral pushed back on the ship’s deployment earlier this month.

Either the Pentagon was hoping to provide an off-ramp for Trump’s massive military build-up in the Middle East, or it was trying to establish some scraps of plausible deniability before the bombs started to drop. Or perhaps the narrative wasn’t intended for the public at all.

“To be clear, the Pentagon has its own press people who go behind the White House’s back all the time to shape media narratives. [It’s] often done to manipulate the President by having the press describe [him] as weak or indecisive,” Ahmadi wrote in another post, noting that this kind of strategy was not without precedent.

Trump has already pushed back on reporting that the U.S. isn’t ready to strike. In a lengthy Truth Social post Monday, the president claimed that “numerous stories” about Caine’s broad caution toward the Middle East situation were “100 percent incorrect.”

As President Trump makes his State of the Union address Tuesday night, he will have at least six Epstein survivors staring back at him.

Multiple congressional Democrats announced that they’d be inviting women who were abused by convicted sex offender and former Trump confidant Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein Transparency Act co-sponsor Ro Khanna is bringing survivor Haley Robson, who said she was trafficked by Epstein at the age of 16. Robson voted for Trump but has since called for him to be impeached.

Sky and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of Virginia Giuffre, will arrive with Representatives Jamie Raskin and Suhas Subramanyam. Giuffre had alleged that she was approached in 2000 by Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, where she worked at the time as a pool attendant, and was subsequently abused for the next two years. Giuffre committed suicide last April.

Representative Robert Garcia will bring survivor Annie Farmer, while Representative Maxine Dexter invited Epstein survivor Lisa Phillips to take her place at the speech. Senator Chuck Schumer will be joined by survivor Danielle Bensky.

This comes as NPR reported that the Justice Department willfully obscured documents containing allegations against President Donald Trump in its recent files—all while claiming transparency.

The State of the Union will be at 9 p.m. EST on Tuesday.