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Kash Patel has previously been criticized for using the FBI’s $60 million plane to visit his girlfriend
Owen ScottSunday 23 November 2025 18:15 GMTComments
CloseUnderfire FBI Director Kash Patel: I'm not going anywhere
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Kash Patel has been slammed by critics after a report claimed that his country music star girlfriend has been assigned an FBI SWAT team for protection.
The elite agents assigned to protect Alexis Wilkins, Patel’s girlfriend, normally work in a field office in Nashville and are trained to respond to major incidents, including mass shootings and terror attacks, sources told MS NOW.
Wilkins spends much of her time in Nashville, where she first met Patel, and rarely travels to his homes in Washington D.C., and Las Vegas, leading some to question why she has been given the security detail.
“There is no legitimate justification for this. This is a clear abuse of position and misuse of government resources,” Christopher O’Leary, a former senior FBI agent, told MS NOW. “She is not his spouse, does not live in the same house or even the same city.”
open image in galleryKash Patel has been slammed by critics after a report claimed that his girlfriend has been receiving protection from elite FBI officers. (Getty Images)“I would also add that this comes at a time when security details were stripped from people who are under threat from [Iran],” in a reference to Donald Trump’s decision to pull former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s security detail after an agent for Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps allegedly organized an assassination attempt against him.
Patel’s time in office has been marked by a string of scandals, including the revelation that he used the FBI’s $60 million government plane to fly to a “date night” in Pennsylvania. That night, he attended a wrestling match where Wilkins performed the national anthem. The FBI director is required to use a government jet for travel, but reimburses the feds for personal use.
Just two years earlier, Patel said on his podcast,Kash’s Corner, that he wanted to "ground Chris Wray’s private jet travel that he pays for with taxpayer dollars to hop around the country," in a reference to the man he would later succeed as the director of the FBI. Like Patel, Wray had also been appointed to the prestigious government role by Donald Trump.
The FBI director defended his use of the jet to visit Wilkins in a fiery post on social media, in which he claimed that his girlfriend had “done more for this nation than most will in ten lifetimes.”
“I’ve always said — criticize me all you want. But going after the people doing great work, my personal life, or those around me is a total disgrace,” he raged. “The disgustingly baseless attacks against Alexis — a true patriot and the woman I’m proud to call my partner in life — are beyond pathetic.
“She is a rock-solid conservative and a country music sensation who has done more for this nation than most will in ten lifetimes,” he continued. “I’m so blessed she’s in my life.
“Attacking her isn’t just wrong — it’s cowardly and jeopardizes our safety. My love of family will always be my cornerstone, and you will never tear that down or keep me from them.”
open image in galleryPatel has previously been criticized for using the FBI to visit Wilkins, who is suing a former Senate candidate after he alleged that she worked for Israeli forces (Getty Images)Meanwhile, Wilkins is mired in a lawsuit against Samuel Parker, a former candidate for the U.S. Senate, who she sued after he alleged that she had connections to Israeli Intelligence forces.
Parker, who ran for the U.S. Senate in Utah in 2018, questioned whether Wilkins’ rise to fame was “organic” or attributable to other forces.
“Defendant Samuel Parker has repeatedly lied about Alexis Wilkins, falsely asserting and suggesting that she – an American-born country singer –is an agent of a foreign government, assigned to manipulate and compromise the director of the FBI,” Wilkins’ lawsuit states, according to Newsweek.
The court filing also states that Wilkins is a “Christian, American-born, United States citizen” and that she is “unaffiliated with any intelligence agency, much less the government of Israel.”
The Independent has contacted the FBI for comment.
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