Kash Patel's Private Jet Trip to Milan Reportedly Cost US Taxpayers An Estimated £58,000

FBI Director Kash Patel flew to Italy aboard a government aircraft on 19 February 2026 to attend the final rounds of the men's ice hockey tournament at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, a trip whose estimated £58,000 ($75,000) cost to American taxpayers has drawn sharp criticism from lawmakers and the public alike.

The journey, which public flight data confirmed originated at Manassas, Virginia, before a brief stop at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, landed Patel in northern Italy just in time for both the bronze medal match on Saturday and the gold medal game on Sunday, in which Team USA defeated Canada.

A £58,000 Ticket to the Olympics

The aircraft at the centre of the controversy is the FBI's Gulfstream G550, a jet valued at approximately £46 million ($60 million). According to government aircraft accounting data reviewed by MS NOW, operating the aircraft costs American taxpayers an estimated £3,850 ($5,000) per flight hour. A direct transatlantic flight to northern Italy takes roughly 9 hours each way, bringing the estimated round-trip cost to £58,000 ($75,000).

Federal rules require the FBI director to use government aircraft for all air travel, official or otherwise, to maintain access to secure communications systems and allow for rapid return to Washington in the event of a national security emergency. The same rules also require the director to reimburse the government for any portion of a trip deemed personal, up to the cost of a commercial airline ticket.

The Bureau defended the trip's official character. In a statement posted to X after CBS News published its initial report, FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs Ben Williamson wrote that the journey 'is not a personal trip' and was 'planned months ago'.

According to Williamson, the itinerary included partner meetings with Italian law enforcement and security officials, who had reportedly extended an invitation to Patel back in July 2025, as well as a follow-up meeting with US Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta, briefings at a US consulate on the Bureau's Olympic security posture, and separate meetings with Legat staff stationed in the country.

The Pattern of Travel That Led to a Congressional Probe

The Milan trip did not emerge in isolation. Patel has faced sustained scrutiny over his use of government aircraft since the early months of his tenure as FBI director.

CBS News first reported in April 2025 that a Department of Justice Boeing 757 made two round-trip flights from Washington to New York over a single weekend, once to Stewart International Airport near a charity hockey event where Patel appeared, and again the following day to John F. Kennedy International Airport, where flight records showed the aircraft landed hours before Patel was photographed in box seats next to hockey legend Wayne Gretzky watching Alex Ovechkin break the NHL scoring record.

By December 2025, the pattern had prompted a formal congressional response. Reps. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) and Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Patel on 1 December 2025, demanding that he reimburse taxpayers and produce travel records.

The letter cited an overnight flight on 25 October 2025 to Pennsylvania, where Patel's girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, performed at a wrestling event at Penn State University, followed the next day by a flight to her home city of Nashville, Tennessee. That same weekend, the lawmakers alleged, Patel used the aircraft to travel to 'Boondoggle Ranch', a luxury hunting resort in Texas that advertises itself, in the members' words, as the perfect place to 'waste money or time on unnecessary or questionable projects.'

An FBI spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal in November 2025 that Patel had taken nearly a dozen personal trips since becoming director, compared to former director Robert Mueller's recorded ten personal flights over the entirety of his four-year tenure.

'Ground Chris Wray's Private Jet' — The Hypocrisy Argument

What sharpened the criticism of the Milan trip was a remark Patel himself made in 2023, well before his appointment as director. During an episode of his 'Kash's Corner' podcast, Patel called on the FBI to 'ground Chris Wray's private jet that he pays for with taxpayer dollars to hop around the country.'

Wray, it should be noted, responded to similar questions at the time by pointing out that he was a 'required use traveller' and reimbursed the government in every instance of personal use, precisely the same justification Patel's own office now offers.

The reversal has not gone unnoticed. An editorial in the Notre Dame student paper, The Observer, published in November 2025, put it directly: 'Now, finding himself in the same governmental position, he is doing the same thing for which he condemned Wray.'

The matter was further complicated after the gold medal game. Instagram Live broadcast by Team USA captain Dylan Larkin showed Patel in the locker room celebrations on 22 February, wearing a gold medal and drinking beer with players; footage that sat uneasily alongside the Bureau's insistence that the trip was primarily an official security visit.

The Wider Accountability Question

Federal regulations under 41 CFR § 301-10.264 govern the use of government aircraft by senior officials and require public disclosure of travel by non-officials aboard such planes.

The congressional letter from Raskin and Kamlager-Dove cited this regulation in calling on Patel to produce full flight logs and communications related to his travel, including details surrounding the dismissal of Special Agent Steven Palmer, a 27-year Bureau veteran who led the Critical Incident Response Group overseeing aviation operations, and who was reportedly removed after the jet-use story became public in late 2025.

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment regarding the Milan trip. The Bureau has maintained throughout that all of Patel's travel complies with applicable ethical guidelines, and that any personal portion will be reimbursed accordingly.

Whether that position satisfies congressional oversight committees — or American taxpayers watching a £58,000 bill land at their door — remains an open question.

For now, the debate is more about accountability. Whether Patel's explanation satisfies oversight committees will likely depend on what those travel records show.