{"id":21800,"date":"2025-12-28T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/12\/28\/report-kash-patel-ditches-fbi-suburbans-for-cheaper-option\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T17:00:00","slug":"report-kash-patel-ditches-fbi-suburbans-for-cheaper-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/12\/28\/report-kash-patel-ditches-fbi-suburbans-for-cheaper-option\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Kash Patel ditches FBI suburbans for cheaper option"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By VICTORIA CHURCHILL, US POLITICAL REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published:<\/span>

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FBI director Kash Patel’s choice of travel methods has once again fallen under new scrutiny. A new report from MSNOW revealed that Patel is being driven around in specially armored BMWs purchased by the bureau at his request to be ‘less conspicuous.’ FBI spokesman Ben Williamson described the purchase of BMW X5s as a less expensive option. ‘Government agencies, including the FBI, routinely evaluate, replace and update vehicle fleets based on usage, security needs or budgetary decisions,’ Williamson told MSNOW.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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‘The specific decisions referenced in this article were evaluated partly as a way to save taxpayers millions by picking cheaper selections or making cost structures more efficient,’ Williamson added. Ed Krassenstein, a liberal critic with an X following of 1 million sniped, ‘Is this America First? Sounds more like Germany and Kash Patel first.’ Patel’s use of the BMWs is a departure from the typical blacked-out suburbans purchased as a fleet from General Motors.A person close to Patel, who spoke anonymously to MSNOW to share details, said the government would have paid about $480,000 for a new armored suburban, which was more than twice the cost of the BMW.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Patel has also come under additional scrutiny in recent months for other methods of travel on the taxpayers’ dime. On a recent episode of the Katie Miller podcast that aired last week, Patel pushed back saying that it was ironic that he receives criticism from members of Congress ‘who, by the way, travel exclusively on government-funded programs and go see their family and friends wherever they live, whenever they want, not to mention the junkets they take overseas.’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, led by Sydney Kamlager-Dove and Rep. Jamie Raskin (pictured), opened an investigation into Patel earlier this month, accusing him of repeatedly abusing ‘taxpayer-funded government jets for personal travel.’ The members accused Patel of using a $60 million government jet for dates with his girlfriend, ‘a Scottish golfing excursion’, and ‘a trip to a luxury hunting retreat called ‘Boondoggle Ranch”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Patel also reportedly pushed for upgrading the communications equipment on his plane, including the internet service and call connectivity. Although a pair of sources close to the matter said Patel wanted to upgrade his communications to tweet better, another person gave more concrete examples of calls being dropped. ‘There was one with the attorney general in the spring during an active shooter situation where we couldn’t connect on a flight back from a field office visit,’ the individual noted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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By VICTORIA CHURCHILL, US POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 12:00 EST, 28 December 2025 | Updated: 12:00 EST, 28 December 2025 FBI director Kash Patel’s choice of travel methods has once again fallen under new scrutiny. A new report from MSNOW revealed that Patel is being driven around in specially armored BMWs purchased by the bureau at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}