Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe slammed video of FBI Director Kash Patel partying with the U.S. Olympic hockey team, calling the decision to fly the agency’s plane to Italy “completely inappropriate.”
On Monday’s episode of CNN’s “The Lead,” host Jack Tapper said he knows “Republicans on Capitol Hill are embarrassed” about Patel’s controversial trip to the Winter Olympics.
Although FBI spokespeople insist Patel was in Milan for security meetings, McCabe did not believe so.
“I mean, the video is ridiculous‘, and it was completely inappropriate for him to be involved, to go at all,” McCabe told Tapper. “Let’s be honest. The excuse that he had to go to security meetings the day before the end of the Games is simply ridiculous.”
McCabe then recalled how former FBI Director Robert Mueller had visited Greece eight months before the event to make security arrangements for the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.
“That’s when the details and agreements are made that an FBI director has to take into account to make sure others understand the role of the agency and things like that,” he said. “It’s not the day of the last hockey game.”
McCabe said Patel’s trip sent a “terrible, horrible message to the FBI’s rank and file” at a time when the bureau had its plate full with a high-profile investigation into the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie and possible military action against Iran.
“I can tell you that because you’ve been in that position before, when you’re on the brink of hostilities with a country that sponsors terrorism, the FBI is now using a microscope — or they should be — going through all their data to find Iranian sleeper agents in the United States,” McCabe said.
In a message posted on X Sunday, Patel defended his time drinking beer and partying with the Team USA hockey brigade.
“…Yes, I love America and was deeply humbled when my friends, the newly minted gold medalists from Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys,” he wrote. “The greatest country in the world and the greatest sport in the world.”
According to a report from MS NOW, Patel’s trip cost taxpayers as much as $75,000.
Patel’s use of FBI resources for what appear to be personal matters previously raised concerns. Last year, he raised eyebrows for traveling to Pennsylvania on an agency plane to see his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, perform at a wrestling event.
