The F.B.I. director Kash Patel’s four-day trip to Italy — culminating in a celebratory beer swig with the U.S. hockey team at the Milan Olympics — included several hours of work meetings, a handful of meet-and-greets, hours of down time, private meals and “cultural activities,” according to an internal schedule obtained by The New York Times.
The taxpayer-funded visit to the Games reignited the firestorm over Mr. Patel’s use of government resources, which intensified on Tuesday when Senate Democrats aired new allegations against the director, citing an anonymous whistle-blower inside the Trump administration.
Mr. Patel has fiercely defended his Italy trip, saying it was scheduled months ago and necessary to fortify his relationship with the F.B.I.’s European partners. He has questioned his critics’ love of hockey, and suggested they were insufficiently stoked by the U.S. team’s gold medal victory.
The schedule, an unclassified document distributed to federal agencies responsible for staffing events, generally corresponds to the broad outline provided to reporters last week — roughly six public meetings and two classified ones. But it provides start and end times for official meetings, and suggests that Mr. Patel had long blocs of personal and leisure time.
It is not clear if other events were kept off the schedule. An F.B.I. spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But people close to Mr. Patel said that much of his down time includes some element of work.
Mr. Patel flew into Rome on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 19. After he landed, he had a late dinner with the U.S. ambassador to Italy, Tilman Fertitta, a Texas billionaire and former Trump business associate.
Last Friday, Mr. Patel met for an hour with the head of Italy’s domestic security agency, followed by a photo op with Italian law enforcement officials to sign a cybercrime cooperation deal. Then he had an “aperitivo,” snacks and drinks, at the country’s interior ministry.
After several ceremonial events (with 10 minutes to read the president’s daily briefing), he flew to Milan to watch the hockey team’s victory over Slovakia.
One of Mr. Patel’s stated reasons for being in Milan was to help oversee security at the games.
His schedule for Saturday lists one 20-minute briefing with the Olympic security team, along with a half-hour tour of the joint security operations center, capped by a private lunch with an unspecified guest.
The period between 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. was reserved for what was listed as “personal time/cultural activities,” followed by a private dinner with unspecified companions.
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Mr. Patel’s Sunday schedule listed only two events: The gold medal game between the United States and Canada, followed by a 7 p.m. flight back to the East Coast, a more than 4,000 mile trip that would typically cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The trip would likely not have garnered as much attention if Mr. Patel had not already faced significant criticism, including blowback inside the administration, for blurring the lines between personal recreation and professional responsibility.
It was not immediately clear how much the trip to Italy cost. F.B.I. directors must fly on government aircraft for their travel because of required access to secure communications equipment. But using government jets for business trips requires significant planning and coordination with others, including the director’s security team.
Mr. Patel has offered comparable explanations when pressed on his decision to provide SWAT team protection for his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, a country singer and right-wing activist, as well as for his heavy use of federal resources for travel that has at times appeared to blur professional lines.
Last summer, he flew on a government jet from the Washington area to Inverness, Scotland, for a getaway with friends, including former Navy SEALs, at the Carnegie Club, an exclusive golf resort. He has also taken flights, at taxpayer expense, to a private hunting ranch in Texas and to a wrestling match in State College, Pa., to watch a performance by Ms. Wilkins.
On Tuesday, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, claimed that an elite F.B.I. team was unable to quickly deploy to a mass shooting at Brown University last year because Mr. Patel was using one of the bureau’s two jets, citing “credible” whistle-blower information.
“Kash Patel has seemingly engaged in what amounts to irresponsible joyriding on D.O.J.- and F.B.I.-operated aircraft at the expense of the American taxpayer and to the detriment of ongoing Bureau operations,” Mr. Durbin said in a statement.
Ben Williamson, Mr. Patel’s spokesman, said that agents from the F.B.I.’s Boston field office responded quickly. The shooting investigation in Providence was also initially led by the authorities in Rhode Island, Mr. Williamson added.
“There would not be a situation where the FBI delayed or couldn’t send resources because of Director travel, especially in this case,” he said in a post on X.
Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice for The Times and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons.
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