FBI veteran fired amid Kash Patel jet controversy

According to The Guardian, reports indicate that after Patel became angry over the disclosure that he had used a government jet to visit his fiancée and attend her musical performance, a senior FBI official with 27 years of service was dismissed.

Steven Palmer, the dismissed official, who had worked at the agency since 1998, was removed from his roles as head of the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group and as overseer of the agency’s jet fleet.

Palmer is the third leader of this unit to be fired since Patel was appointed as the FBI’s second director under the second Trump administration in February. Previously, Wes Wheeler was dismissed in March, and Brian Driscoll in August. Driscoll has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming he was unfairly fired for showing disloyalty to the president.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Patel’s flights were fully traceable, and his dismissal surprised three officials who spoke anonymously about the situation.

According to the flight-tracking website FlightAware, the FBI jet carrying Patel landed near Pennsylvania State University on October 25. Patel’s fiancée had a performance that same evening. Flight records show that the FBI jet later departed for Nashville.

Notably, The Guardian reports that data for this aircraft was blocked the day after the flight, displaying a message in the search section stating that the information is “not trackable at the request of the aircraft owner/operator.”

On Sunday, following the news, Patel posted a lengthy statement on X, saying: “I will not be distracted by baseless rumors, internet anarchists, or fake news.” He then criticized those who track the personal lives of people “doing great work,” calling it “a disgrace,” and defended his fiancée as “a true patriot and a woman proud to be my partner.”