FBI director Kash Patel celebrating in the locker room with the victorious U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team on Sunday sparked a social media clash between two MS NOW reporters who’ve been reporting on his travel plans and a top FBI spokesman.
MS NOW reporters Ken Dilanian and Carol Leonnig reported on Thursday that Patel had traveled to Milan aboard the FBI’s private jet and would watch the Olympic men’s hockey games alongside other meetings, confirming a CBS News report.
FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson posted that day on X that Patel’s trip was not personal and said the director had scheduled meetings with Italian security officials and the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, along with noting the FBI’s role in Olympics security.
On Saturday, Dilanian asked Williamson on X, “Will he be at the hockey game tomorrow?”
Williamson posted photos of X on Patel at security meetings, and responded, “Your rag wrote that he went to hang out at the Olympics on the taxpayer dime — even when provided information that your theory was false.”
He didn’t directly answer Dilanian’s question.
On Sunday, the MS NOW reporters scrutinized Williamson’s characterization of Patel’s presence at the men’s hockey final on Sunday after Patel, an avid hockey fan and player, was seen in multiple videos celebrating with the U.S. men’s team in their locker room following their gold media victory over Canada.
The videos showed the director partying, banging on a table and pumping his hands in the air after a player adorned him with one of their gold medals. Patel claimed on his personal X account that the players invited him into their locker room.
White House communications director Steven Cheung, no stranger to bashing journalists, also took aim at Leonnig, suggesting she was “either mentally deficient or a liar” in her framing of one Patel video, and asserting that the FBI director “was also in Italy meeting with regional partners and security teams.”
An MS NOW spokesperson said the network stands by its reporting. An FBI spokesperson did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
The Milan trip came as Patel faces multiple crises at home, including the search for “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie’s mother Nancy Guthrie; U.S. tourists sheltering in place in Mexico as a Mexican cartel retaliated against authorities over the killing of their leader; and the Secret Service killing an intruder at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, an investigation the FBI has joined. Patel has also faced scrutiny — and a congressional probe — over his alleged use of the FBI jet to see his girlfriend.
The question of Patel’s primary reason for being in Milan is relevant because use of a government jet for personal use requires the federal employee to reimburse the agency for personal costs.
Several Democratic lawmakers seized on the Patel party clips: “3 million pages of evidence of a massive child sex trafficking ring and this is what the FBI director is doing right now,” wrote Illinois Rep. Sean Casten.
The reporters took issue with the FBI’s claim that Patel’s trip was strictly meant for business, particularly after Patel posted on X in July that he would watch the hockey team play.
“Here is @FBIDirectorKash Patel – whose office said he was flying on government jet to Olympics strictly for business – not to see hockey,” Leonnig wrote on X alongside a clip of Patel in the locker room. “I’m told taxpayers will pay >100k for this.”
Williamson denied their claim that he said the trip was strictly for business in another X post, writing on Sunday that he told them “the meetings we had scheduled and said any other personal expenses would be reimbursed.” Patel on Monday amplified Williamson’s X post alongside one of Leonnig’s promoting her story, adding a Pinocchio emoji.
To which Leonnig responded:
