{"id":797052,"date":"2026-05-15T01:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T01:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/797052\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T01:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T01:15:14","slug":"emails-show-kash-patel-went-on-a-vip-snorkel-at-pearl-harbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/797052\/","title":{"rendered":"Emails show Kash Patel went on a ‘VIP snorkel’ at Pearl Harbor"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 When Kash Patel<\/a> visited Hawaii last summer, the FBI took pains to note the director was not on vacation, highlighting his walking tour of the bureau\u2019s Honolulu field office and meetings with local law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Left out of the FBI\u2019s news releases was an exclusive excursion that Patel took days later when he participated in what government officials described as a \u201cVIP snorkel\u201d around the USS Arizona<\/a> in an outing coordinated by the military. The sunken battleship entombs more than 900 sailors and Marines at Pearl Harbor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The swim, revealed in government emails obtained by The Associated Press, comes to light amid criticism of Patel\u2019s use of the FBI plane and his global travel, which have blurred professional responsibilities with leisure activities<\/a>. The FBI did not disclose the snorkeling session or that Patel had returned to Hawaii for two days after his initial stopover on the island.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt fits a pattern of Director Patel getting tangled up in unseemly distractions \u2014 this time at a site commemorating the second deadliest attack in U.S. history \u2014 instead of staying laser-focused on keeping Americans safe,\u201d said Stacey Young, who founded Justice Connection, a network of former federal prosecutors and agents<\/a> who advocate for the Department of Justice\u2019s independence. <\/p>\n

With few exceptions, snorkeling and diving are off-limits around the USS Arizona. The battleship, now a military cemetery reachable only by boat, has stood as one of the nation\u2019s most hallowed sites since Japan bombed and sank it<\/a> in 1941. Marine archaeologists and crews from the National Park Service make occasional dives at the memorial to survey the condition of the wreck. Other dives have been conducted to inter the remains of Arizona survivors who wanted to rest eternally with their former shipmates.<\/p>\n

Still, since at least the Obama administration, the Navy and the park service have quietly allowed a handful of dignitaries, including military and government officials responsible for management of the memorial, to swim at the site. The Navy and park service declined to provide details of those permitted to take such excursions. <\/p>\n

Former FBI directors have visited Pearl Harbor on official business, but none going back to at least 1993 has gone snorkeling at the memorial, according to those familiar with their activities and a former government diver who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. The diver 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.<\/p>\n

Patel has faced scrutiny over his leadership for the past year, with his use of government resources emerging as a recurring storyline of his tenure. The issue flared in February when video surfaced of Patel partying in the locker room<\/a> \u202fwith members of the U.S. men\u2019s hockey team after their gold medal win at the Winter Olympics in Milan.\u202f Patel defended the trip as recently as this week<\/a> as \u201cpurposely planned\u201d in connection with a cybercrime investigation involving the Italian authorities.<\/p>\n

Unanswered questions about exclusive outing<\/p>\n

Patel\u2019s excursion was in August as he spent two days in Hawaii on his return to the United States from official visits to Australia and New Zealand. On his way to those countries, he stopped in Hawaii to visit the Honolulu field office. An FBI spokesman did not answer questions about the snorkeling session.<\/p>\n

The FBI said in a statement that top regional commanders hosted Patel at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam \u201cas they commonly do with US government officials on official travel.\u201d The Pearl Harbor visit, the spokesman said, \u201cwas part of the Director\u2019s public national security engagements last August with counterparts in New Zealand, Australia, our Honolulu Field Office, and the Department of War.\u201d <\/p>\n

It was not clear how Patel\u2019s snorkeling session was arranged. A Navy spokesperson, Capt. Jodie Cornell, confirmed the outing but said the service was not able to track down who initiated it. <\/p>\n

Participants in Patel\u2019s swim were told \u201cnot to touch\/come into contact with\u201d the sunken ship in any way, Cornell said. She added that the snorkelers were also briefed about \u201cthe historic significance of the Memorial as the final resting place\/tomb for hundreds of service members.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u2018VIP Snorkel\u2019<\/p>\n

Government emails obtained by the AP through a public records request show military officials coordinated logistics and personnel for the \u201cVIP Snorkel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Park Service, which administers the site in coordination with the Navy, told AP it was not involved in Patel\u2019s swim and declined to comment on the excursion. It also declined to answer questions about any other such outings. <\/p>\n

Among those afforded invitations to snorkel have been Navy admirals and secretaries of defense and the interior, according to the former government diver. The diver added that the swims were intended to provide officials with insights into the memorial and its operations.<\/p>\n

The Navy declined to provide examples or numbers showing how frequently it organizes such excursions. It described Patel\u2019s outing as \u201cnot an anomaly.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hack Albertson, a Marine veteran, is part of a select group from the Paralyzed Veterans of America trained to dive on the Arizona annually to check on the condition of the wreck. He said it was inappropriate for Patel and other political figures to snorkel or dive at the memorial. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like having a bachelor party at a church. It\u2019s hallowed ground,\u201d he said. \u201cIt needs to be treated with the solemnity it deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some family members don\u2019t object to snorkeling<\/p>\n

Some family members of Pearl Harbor survivors said they were not bothered by such official excursions, though some expressed a desire to also be permitted to snorkel at the site. They said they have not been permitted to do so. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have not heard of anyone who would object to these visits as they are very rare and there aren\u2019t any survivors of the Arizona left alive,\u201d Deidre Kelley, national president of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, wrote in an email. \u201cTheir children might have some objections but I haven\u2019t heard any.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patel visited Pearl Harbor several years ago during a trip he made to Hawaii while serving as chief of staff to Christopher Miller, then the acting secretary of defense, according to the former government diver.<\/p>\n

Miller said he snorkeled over the Arizona during an official visit to the base, but Patel was not present for that excursion. Miller said he was invited to snorkel by regional military officials and was told such a tour was for \u201cspecial occasions and for special visitors, of which you\u2019re one.\u201d He called it a \u201cmeaningful\u201d experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very somber and meaningful event,\u201d Miller said in an interview. \u201cIt was a historical tour. It wasn\u2019t a recreational thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

FBI will not discuss Patel\u2019s return to Hawaii<\/p>\n

Beyond the snorkeling excursion, it is not clear what else Patel did during his second stop in Hawaii. <\/p>\n

Flight tracking data for the Gulfstream G550 typically used by the FBI director show the jet remained on the island two nights during that stay before flying on to Las Vegas, Patel\u2019s adopted hometown. The jet has a published range of about 7,700 miles (12,391 kilometers), meaning the plane would have needed to refuel somewhere between New Zealand and Washington.<\/p>\n

The snorkeling session happened one day after Patel stopped in Wellington to open the FBI\u2019s first\u202f standalone office<\/a> \u202fin New Zealand. The visit sparked controversy after the AP revealed that Patel had gifted that country\u2019s police and spy bosses inoperable 3D-printed replica pistols that were\u202f illegal to possess<\/a> \u202funder local gun laws.<\/p>\n

__ Mustian reported from New York. Associated Press writers Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 When Kash Patel visited Hawaii last summer, the FBI took pains to note the director…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":797053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[38095,3881,5643,4740,11744,396,201033,325125,57,26621,81747,17787,325123,43497,8132,23133,50,169639,325124,51507,61,67,132,68,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-797052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-ap-investigations","10":"tag-ap-top-news","11":"tag-arizona","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-barack-obama","14":"tag-bombings","15":"tag-christopher-miller","16":"tag-deidre-kelley","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-hawaii","19":"tag-hi-state-wire","20":"tag-japan-government","21":"tag-jodie-cornell","22":"tag-kash-patel","23":"tag-military-and-defense","24":"tag-new-zealand","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-scuba-diving-and-snorkeling","27":"tag-stacey-young","28":"tag-u-s-federal-bureau-of-investigation","29":"tag-u-s-news","30":"tag-united-states","31":"tag-unitedstates","32":"tag-us","33":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116575951817172878","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}