In previous months, Patel has come under fire for seemingly allowing his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, to use an official FBI airplane to travel to her shows.
Recent reports that FBI Director Kash Patel’s girlfriend flew on an FBI plane have intensified criticism of Patel’s use of taxpayer funds and his leadership of the Bureau.
Country singer and right-wing political commentator Alexis Wilkins, who has been in a relationship with FBI Director Kash Patel for around three years, was reported to be protected by FBI agents in an MS NOW report last Monday.
According to the report, elite SWAT agents guard Wilkins, who works in Nashville and lives in Las Vegas. Further, the report noted that personal protection details for directors’ girlfriends are rare, citing people familiar with FBI security protocols.
“Ms. Wilkins is receiving a protective detail because she has faced hundreds of credible death threats related to her relationship with Director Patel, whom she has been dating for three years,” MS NOW quoted the FBI as saying. “Out of respect for her safety, we will not be providing additional details.”
Previous criticism
In previous months, Patel has also come under fire for seemingly allowing Wilkins to use an official FBI airplane to travel to her shows. According to The Guardian, flight logs for Patel’s FBI airplane show flights to an event where Wilkins performed, followed by a flight to Nashville.
Newly sworn-in FBI Director Kash Patel announces that he is going to celebrate his new job at the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC during a ceremony in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on February 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (credit: CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES)
Patel responded forcefully on X/Twitter, calling reports of inappropriate use of the airplane “baseless rumors” and urged the public to focus on what he described as the FBI’s recent achievements, such as “taking violent criminals off the streets in record numbers, crushing the fentanyl crisis, dismantling cartels, saving children, [and] hunting down terrorists.”
FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs Ben Williamson also dismissed criticism of Patel as “disingenuous and dumb,” posting a lengthy explanation of how Patel’s predecessors allegedly cost the Bureau more in travel expenses. The post also clarified that Patel reimburses the FBI for personal travel.
Patel also denounced attacks against Wilkins, maintaining that “[Wilkins] is a rock-solid conservative and a country music sensation who has done more for this nation than most will in ten lifetimes,” adding that “[he’s] so blessed she’s in [his] life.”
According to her lawyer, several months ago, Wilkins filed a lawsuit against a former FBI agent for “falsely asserting that she, an American-born country singer, is an agent of a foreign government, assigned to manipulate and compromise the director of the FBI.”
FBI reform raises questions
Despite confidence from many in Washington, including US President Donald Trump, who called him an “‘America First’ fighter” last year, some senior officials in the nation’s capital have spoken out in recent months, leading to firings.
During his tenure, Patel has fired high-ranking officials, as part of what The Independent, among others, has described as a Trump strategy to reshape the FBI. Following the latest developments in the saga, a former senior Trump administration official told The New Yorker that, for the first time, he felt fearful of the current government.
According to data obtained by Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), roughly 25% of the FBI’s agents have been reassigned to immigration cases, a part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
