FBI Director Kash Patel took part in a guided underwater tour of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor during an official trip to Hawaii last August, government emails obtained by the Associated Press show. Military officials described the outing in internal correspondence as a "VIP Snorkel." The disclosure has drawn predictable criticism from Patel's opponents, and a sharp response from the FBI.
What has received far less attention in the coverage is a detail buried in the same reporting: the Navy and the National Park Service have quietly allowed a handful of dignitaries to swim at the site since at least the Obama administration. The practice, in other words, did not begin with Patel. It did not begin under Trump. And nobody in the press corps raised an alarm about it until now.
That context matters. Strip it away and the story sounds like an FBI director turned a military cemetery into a pool party. Put it back and the picture changes considerably.
Patel spent two days in Hawaii on his return to the United States from official visits to Australia and New Zealand. One day before the snorkeling session, he stopped in Wellington to open the FBI's first standalone office in New Zealand, a concrete national security milestone that has drawn almost no media interest.
During the Hawaii leg, the FBI said top regional commanders hosted Patel at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam "as they commonly do with US government officials on official travel." He also took a walking tour of the FBI's Honolulu field office and met with local law enforcement.
The snorkeling excursion itself was coordinated by military officials, who arranged logistics and personnel. Participants were told "not to touch/come into contact with" the sunken ship in any way and were briefed on what Navy Capt. Jodie Cornell called "the historic significance of the Memorial as the final resting place/tomb for hundreds of service members."
Cornell, a Navy spokesperson, confirmed the outing and described it as "not an anomaly." She said the service was unable to track down who initiated it.
FBI spokesman Ben Williamson did not mince words. As the New York Post reported, Williamson said:
"The AP is attempting to spin an invitation from the Commanding General of Indo Pacom to a military base as a party or vacation, which is so stupid."
Williamson also called the Pearl Harbor visit "a historical tour to honor heroes who died on the USS Arizona, not a party." The FBI said the visit "was part of the Director's public national security engagements last August with counterparts in New Zealand, Australia, our Honolulu Field Office, and the Department of War."
None of that language suggests a man sneaking off for recreation. It suggests a senior official accepting an invitation from military commanders, the same kind of invitation that has been extended to other officials for more than a decade.
Former acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, for whom Patel previously served as chief of staff, told the AP he snorkeled over the Arizona during a separate official visit to the base. Miller said he was invited by regional military officials, who told him the tours were reserved for "special occasions and for special visitors, of which you're one."
"It was a very somber and meaningful event. It was a historical tour. It wasn't a recreational thing."
Miller confirmed Patel was not present for his own excursion. A former government diver, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity, said such swims were intended to provide officials with insights into the memorial and its operations. That same diver said former FBI directors going back to at least 1993 had not gone snorkeling at the memorial, which means the practice itself existed but previous FBI directors simply hadn't participated.
Patel has faced a sustained campaign of leaks and opposition since taking over the FBI. The pattern is familiar: a detail surfaces, it gets framed in the most damaging possible light, and the context that would soften it arrives only deep in the story, if it arrives at all.
Stacey Young, founder of Justice Connection, a network of former federal prosecutors and agents who advocate for the Department of Justice's independence, offered a line tailor-made for cable news:
"It fits a pattern of Director Patel getting tangled up in unseemly distractions, this time at a site commemorating the second deadliest attack in U.S. history, instead of staying laser-focused on keeping Americans safe."
The phrase "unseemly distractions" does a lot of work in that sentence. It implies Patel chose to snorkel instead of doing his job. But the emails show the excursion was part of a broader official itinerary that included opening a new FBI office abroad, meeting with counterparts in multiple allied nations, and touring a domestic field office.
Marine veteran Hack Albertson, who dives on the Arizona annually as part of a Paralyzed Veterans of America team that checks the wreck's condition, was more direct. "It's like having a bachelor party at a church. It's hallowed ground," he said. "It needs to be treated with the solemnity it deserves."
That's a fair sentiment from a veteran who has earned the right to voice it. But it applies equally to every dignitary who has taken the same swim since the Obama years, none of whom drew a single headline.
Meanwhile, Deidre Kelley, national president of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, offered a different perspective. "I have not heard of anyone who would object to these visits as they are very rare and there aren't any survivors of the Arizona left alive," Kelley wrote. "Their children might have some objections but I haven't heard any."
The Pearl Harbor story arrives amid ongoing media attention to Patel's travel. The Washington Examiner noted that the FBI publicly disclosed Patel's Honolulu meetings but did not disclose the snorkeling session or his additional two-night stay in Hawaii. Flight tracking data showed the Gulfstream G550 typically used by the FBI director remained on the island for two nights before flying on to Las Vegas, described as Patel's adopted hometown. The jet has a published range of about 7,700 miles.
Patel has also faced questions about a February trip to Milan, where video surfaced of him in the locker room with members of the U.S. men's hockey team after their gold medal win at the Winter Olympics. As recently as this week, Patel defended that trip as "purposely planned" in connection with a cybercrime investigation involving Italian authorities.
He has also pushed back aggressively against media claims about his conduct, including threatening legal action over what he called fabricated allegations.
The sunken battleship entombs more than 900 sailors and Marines. With few exceptions, snorkeling and diving are off-limits around the Arizona. The National Park Service, which administers the site in coordination with the Navy, told AP it was not involved in Patel's swim and declined to comment on the excursion. The Park Service also declined to answer questions about any other such outings, a silence that conveniently leaves the impression Patel's visit was unique when the Navy itself says otherwise.
Democrats have made no secret of their desire to force Patel out. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has vowed to push Patel toward the exits, and every new story about travel or appearances becomes ammunition in that campaign.
Several questions remain unanswered. Who specifically initiated the snorkeling invitation? Who else participated? What was the complete itinerary for Patel's return leg through Hawaii? The Navy says it cannot track down who arranged the outing. The Park Service says it wasn't involved. The FBI says it was an official engagement.
None of those answers point to misconduct. They point to a bureaucratic invitation extended by military hosts to a senior government official, the same kind of invitation extended under prior administrations without a whisper of controversy.
Patel has faced a relentless series of disclosures designed to embarrass him, from disputes over classified documents to leaked emails to opposition-research-style travel tracking. Each story follows the same formula: surface a detail, strip the context, let the implication do the damage.
The USS Arizona deserves reverence. The more than 900 men entombed there deserve better than to have their resting place turned into a political prop. But that cuts both ways. If the practice of allowing senior officials to tour the memorial underwater is inappropriate, the outrage should have started a decade ago, not the moment it became useful against a Trump appointee.
When the rules only apply to one side, they aren't rules. They're weapons.