Long before FBI Director Kash Patel was filmed partying with the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team after they won the gold, he was facing months’ worth of accusations that he had misused FBI jets for personal reasons. But the focus on the former podcast personality’s jet-setting habits took on greater significance after he flew to Milan and celebrated at taxpayers’ expense.

To be sure, an FBI spokesperson insisted to MS NOW last week that Patel visited Italy for a series of business meetings, not leisure, which justified his use of a bureau jet. That was a difficult claim to take seriously, made worse when someone leaked the director’s internal schedule to The New York Times.

Despite similar allegations leading to the ouster of a previous FBI director in 1993, congressional Republicans have appeared eager to lend their support to Patel in the wake of his latest controversy. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, for example, separately endorsed the director’s antics this week, seemingly indifferent to questions about the possible misuse of public resources.

Their support, however, came before the latest reporting from MS NOW about related allegations from an FBI whistleblower. From the report:

Agents with the FBI’s elite evidence response team were delayed in reaching the scene of a mass shooting at Brown University in December because there was no FBI plane available to take them to Rhode Island, according to three sources and a whistleblower’s account newly...

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