Report: Kash Patel Was Desperate to Snorkel in a Graveyard

Kash Patel can’t stop living the good life.

The FBI director reportedly went on a VIP snorkeling trip while on a visit to Hawaii last summer that the bureau stressed was not a vacation. Patel was officially in the state to tour the FBI’s Honolulu branch and meet with local law enforcement, or at least that’s what the bureau’s news releases said.

But the Associated Press obtained government emails showing that Patel took part in the snorkeling excursion, coordinated by the military, near the USS Arizona, which was sunk in the World War II attack on Pearl Harbor. That wasn’t mentioned in the bureau’s public releases, nor was Patel’s return to Hawaii for two days after initially visiting the state.

Snorkeling and diving are usually prohibited around the sunken battleship, with rare exceptions. It’s essentially a military cemetery, as over 900 sailors and Marines died in the 1941 attack by Japan. Most dives either are done by Marine archaeologists or crews from the National Park Service to examine the wreck’s condition, or to inter the remains of survivors of the attack who wish to be laid to rest near their fellow shipmates.

Only a few dignitaries have been allowed to swim at the site since at least the Obama administration, but none of them were FBI chiefs, even though they have visited Pearl Harbor. Patel, yet again, appears to be using his job and access to a private FBI jet to get away with vacationing on the taxpayer’s dime.

Patel has used FBI resources to fly to see his girlfriend sing at a wrestling event and have agents protect her, as well as buy a new fleet of BMWs to ride around in. He went to Italy to party during the Olympics, and drinks so much on the job that he once passed out behind a locked door, requiring “breaching equipment” to get him out. And how many other FBI directors had their own personalized bourbon, and lashed out when it went missing?

Patel appears to think that he gets to party and carry out President Trump’s bidding, such as going after the president’s political enemies and purging agents who don’t toe the administration’s line, even when they are experts on Iran. The list of Patel’s transgressions is long, but he still has a job until his misdeeds outweigh his pro-Trump sycophancy.

The Trump administration is targeting another federal judge who has ruled against the government, even telling its lawyers to withhold information.

The New York Times, citing an internal email, reports that a lawyer for ICE told Kevin M. Bolan, a Justice Department lawyer preparing to appear before U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose in April, not to disclose an arrest warrant for murder in the Dominican Republic for Bryan Rafael Gomez, an immigrant she planned to release from federal custody.

“Please do not confirm or deny the existence” of the warrant, ICE lawyer Adam E. Mattei wrote to Bolan. “There has yet to be any use authorization for this information.”

After DuBose ordered Gomez’s release, though, the Department of Homeland Security attacked her in a news release as an “activist Biden Judge” for releasing a “violent criminal illegal alien.” DuBose didn’t take kindly to this, issuing an order earlier this month questioning why she was not told about “facts relevant” to the case and saying that the omission “threatens public safety and erodes trust in the rule of law.”

Bolan then apologized in a court filing, saying that ICE had told him to withhold the information for what he thought was a legitimate law enforcement reason. He added that his DOJ colleagues had asked the DHS to take their news release down to no avail. DuBose still referred Bolan for possible discipline, citing a “lack of candor.”

The general counsel for DHS, James Percival, then attacked DuBose in a column for the conservative website The Federalist Tuesday, calling DuBose an “activist” and saying she lacked “any plausible basis to review Mr. Gomez’s custody status.”

The whole thing is part of a pattern, led by President Trump, of government officials denigrating judges who go against the administration’s mass deportation agenda. DuBose, appointed by President Biden, is the first Black and LGBTQ judge to serve on Rhode Island’s federal bench, making her a big target for MAGA. On top of that, the government knowingly withheld information from her, further destroying whatever credibility this administration has left.

The Trump administration’s immigration operation is experiencing another major shakeup.

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks suddenly resigned from his position Thursday following accusations of sexual impropriety. Banks oversaw Donald Trump’s second-term immigration crackdown. The longtime law enforcement professional told Fox News that his resignation was effective immediately.

“It’s just time, man,” Banks told Fox News congressional correspondent Bill Melugin. “I feel like I got this shit back on course, from the least secure, disastrous, chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen. Time to pass the reins.”

“It’s time to enjoy the family and life,” Banks added.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott thanked Banks for his service “during one of the most challenging periods for border security.”

But Banks’s sudden departure comes at a curious time, as reports circulate about his penchant for sex workers. Border Patrol employees told the Washington Examiner last month that Banks was “known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to engage in sex with prostitutes.”

Banks even “bragged” about his deviant habits with colleagues while in his previous role in Border Patrol, and allegedly paid for sex with prostitutes while travelling across Colombia and Thailand over the course of a decade. CBP reportedly investigated his behavior twice, including last year, but the probe was squashed by former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Despite Trump having made immigration a key priority for his second term, federal immigration agencies have seen a tremendous leadership shakeup since he returned to office, rattling every component of the country’s immigration system.

So far, the restructuring has ousted Noem and former Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who was sidelined by the administration after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis early this year.

And more resignations are on the way: acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons is expected to step down from his position in the coming weeks. He will be replaced by David Venturella, a private prison executive.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s glamorous road trip across the U.S. was paid for by corporate titans.

The former Fox News host claimed that over the course of seven months, he filmed an upcoming reality television show with his wife and their nine children, called The Great American Roadtrip. His wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, referred to their time on the road as “really wholesome, good family stuff.” 

But Duffy—a multimillionaire with a taxpayer-funded salary—did not pay for the extravagant trip himself. Instead, the money came from a supposedly independent nonprofit, a 501(c)4 called Great American Road Trip Inc. 

In a statement to The New Republic, Duffy’s office described GART as an “independent” entity. 

GART was established around August 2025 by Tori Barnes, reported Forbes Thursday. Barnes, according to her LinkedIn profile, spent nearly two decades working as a lobbyist for General Motors before moving to the U.S. Travel Association.

A Department of Transportation memo dated March 6 described GART as a “multi-platform storytelling initiative” that was launched by Duffy and the Transportation Department as part of a “series of initiatives in partnership with Freedom250 to further contribute to this historic year.” Freedom250 is the Trump administration’s effort commemorating the U.S.’s 250th birthday.

Behind the nonprofit’s funding is a medley of industry giants, including aircraft manufacturer Boeing, carmaker Toyota, and gas giant Shell, all proudly displayed on the nonprofit’s website. Other funders were Google, the cruise company Royal Caribbean Group, United Airlines, Chase Travel, and the U.S. Travel Association, among other companies that rely on the regulatory systems of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Politico reported Tuesday that sponsorships ranged in price from $100,000 to $1 million.

The reality-TV series was launched in partnership with Fox News, and is set to be released on YouTube in the lead-up to America’s 250th birthday. Not all 50 states will get airtime. Duffy’s multimonth trip hit just eight states: Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Montana, Massachusetts, as well as Washington, D.C.

In a promotional interview on Fox News last week, Duffy confessed that the trek was his idea.

“I wanted to lean in to America’s 250th birthday,” Duffy said, reminding the panel that he and  Campos-Duffy met on a road trip for MTV’s Real World spinoff, Road Rules: All Stars in 1998. 

“And so over the course of seven months we just kind of found these moments where I might be able to do some work, take the kids with me, do a road trip—and our motto is to love America is to see America,” Duffy continued, “and there’s so much to see in this beautiful country.”

Campos-Duffy later clarified that the straight-to-streaming family vacation emerged out of a prompt from Donald Trump, who urged his Cabinet to find ways to celebrate America ahead of the 250th anniversary.

The adventure has since received enormous backlash, which Duffy has attributed to the “the radical, miserable left.”

In an extensive statement shared with TNR, DOT spokesperson Nathaniel Sizemore affirmed that “no taxpayer dollars were spent on Secretary Duffy’s family,” and that “the Secretary and his family do not receive any salary or production royalties” from the show.

“Further, celebrating America’s 250th Anniversary is part of Secretary Duffy’s official duties, and The Great American Road Trip is one aspect in support of those responsibilities,” Sizemore wrote.

Sizemore’s note also specified that Duffy’s trip occurred over 24 days between September and May, a span of nine months—not seven, as the secretary himself claimed.

The four-page note also included pre-written verbiage about whether the nonprofit’s donors presented a “conflict of interest.”

“There is a formal agreement between USDOT and the non-profit that expressly states the non-profit will not receive ‘any favorable consideration for any future federal financial assistance,’ action, contract, or other financial award,” Sizemore wrote, adding that Duffy’s participation in the project was “approved by USDOT ethics attorneys.”

This story has been updated.

President Trump’s attempt to sue The Wall Street Journal for defamation has hit a snag.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled Wednesday that Trump can’t seek discovery based on actual malice from the publication in his lawsuit, calling it “improper” and saying the court couldn’t allow Trump to use the legal process “to help him properly plead his claims.”

“Thus, allowing President Trump to conduct discovery on actual malice, where his initial attempt at pleading a defamation claim fell short, is exactly the type of ‘expensive yet groundless litigation’ the Eleventh Circuit has cautioned against,” Gayles wrote in his ruling.

Trump sued the Journal in July 2025, claiming that the newspaper’s reporting that Trump submitted a letter and explicit drawing to a birthday album for Jeffrey Epstein was defamatory, denying the report’s accuracy. In April, Gayles dismissed the lawsuit, saying that Trump didn’t make a plausible allegation that the newspaper acted with “actual malice,” but allowed Trump the ability to file an amended complaint, which he did.

But now, Trump can’t use the discovery process to gather evidence that the Journal defamed him, although Gayles did leave the door open for him to file another amended complaint. It doesn’t seem likely that he’d succeed a third time, as the House Oversight Committee included the birthday book, complete with the drawing from Trump, in a September release of Epstein materials from his estate.

Earlier this week, Trump’s Justice Department subpoenaed the Journal’s reporters over leaks from the Department of Defense related to the Iran war, which its publisher, Dow Jones, said “represent an attack on constitutionally protected news gathering.” The president’s continued attacks on the Journal, as well as any other news outlet that criticizes him, not only violate the freedom of the press but are meritless.