When Alexis Wilkins, an aspiring country singer dating the FBI director, Kash Patel, sang The Star-Spangled Banner at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Atlanta in the spring, she arrived with a formidable protective posse — a SWAT team from the bureau’s local field office.
The two agents, members of a specialised unit trained to storm barricaded buildings and rescue hostages, had been sent there on Patel’s orders. But seeing that the event at the Georgia World Congress Centre had been secured, and that Wilkins was in no apparent danger, they left before the event was over, according to six people with knowledge of the incident.
She noticed. So did her boyfriend.
Soon after, Patel ripped into the team’s commander, saying that his girlfriend had been left without taxpayer-funded defenders, and slamming what he saw as failure to communicate their movements up the chain of command during her time on the convention floor — where she sang and chatted with attendees, the people said.
He was concerned that Watkins, a high-profile conservative, might be attacked by people who had threatened her online.
Patel’s heavy use of taxpayer-funded resources during his first nine months on the job has contributed to growing questions inside the administration about whether it exceeds the bounds of standard practice. This includes an intense use of security to protect himself and his girlfriend.
He has also used a government jet for some of his recreational travel, such as a golf trip with buddies to a private resort in Scotland over the summer.
Directors must fly on government aircraft for their travel because of required access to secure communications equipment. But using government jets for business trips, or to return home if they have left settled lives in other parts of the country to serve in Washington, requires planning and coordination.
Government security protection for Wilkins to attend events or performances has drawn particular attention, including criticism from some of the same Right-wing online personalities that supported his efforts to shake up the bureau.
“Is she considered Kash’s spouse?” Grace Chong, an influencer who works for a Trump ally, Stephen K. Bannon, asked on X recently about Wilkins’s use of bureau resources. “Is that why she’s getting protection because if not then why are we paying for this?”
The director has his own security detail that protects Wilkins if the two travel together. But current and former FBI officials said that the use of SWAT agents to protect Patel’s girlfriend was highly unusual, given their specialised and often dangerous duties such as executing high-risk warrants and investigating cases.
Patel’s use of these resources has drawn sharp criticism from some former agents, including Christopher O’Leary, a former Marine who as a senior FBI agent oversaw a specialised team that conducted high-risk missions.
“His abusive and excessive use of the GV Jet for his personal adventures and the assignment of SWAT-qualified special agents to guard his girlfriend are indicative of his lack of leadership experience, judgment and humility,” he added, referring to the Gulfstream model of Patel’s
government plane.
“Wilkins is receiving a protective detail because she has faced hundreds of credible death threats related to her relationship with Director Patel,” Ben Williamson, a spokesman for Patel, said in a statement, adding, “bad faith criticisms of FBI travel will not deter the bureau from our mission.”
The incident in Atlanta was not the first time that SWAT team members had been used to protect Wilkins, 27, who has been in a relationship with Patel, 45, for about three years. SWAT team resources have been diverted to protect Wilkins several times in recent months, including in Nashville, where she lives.
New York Times News Service