Internal government emails released in May 2026 show that during FBI Director Kash Patel's official visit to Hawaii in summer 2025, the Navy arranged what officials described in writing as a 'VIP snorkel' around the wreckage of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.
The Arizona is a military cemetery. About 900 U.S. sailors and Marines remain entombed in the hull, where they died during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. The site is reachable only by boat and snorkeling and diving are off-limits with few exceptions. The Navy granted Patel one of those exceptions.
When the FBI publicized the Hawaii trip, the bureau emphasized Patel's walking tour of the Honolulu field office and his meetings with local law enforcement. The 'VIP snorkel' was not mentioned in any FBI press release. It came to light through emails obtained by reporters.
A spokesperson for Senate Democrats said the incident '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.' The Pearl Harbor outing is one of more than ten personal trips Patel has taken on the FBI Gulfstream V jet that the Campaign Legal Center has asked the DOJ Inspector General to investigate.