FBI Director Kash Patel has come under fire for assigning an elite SWAT team to protect his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins.
The country music singer, 27, has been dating Patel, 45, for three years but spends most of her time in Nashville, while he mostly spends his time in Washington, D.C., or Las Vegas.
Typically, partners of FBI directors are not provided with security details.
Highlights
- FBI Director Kash Patel assigned an elite SWAT team to protect his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins.
- Typically, FBI directors' partners do not get security; Wilkins' detail raised concerns about resource misuse and emergency delays.
- Wilkins received severe online threats, including calls for violence and kidnapping, prompting her to share them publicly.
Kash Patel has provided his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins with a security detail
Image credits: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
While the wife of former FBI Director Christopher Wray, Helen, received security protection, it was only when she traveled with her husband, with whom she lived.
“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,” an FBI spokesperson said.
“Out of respect for her safety, we will not be providing additional details.”
Sources told MS NOW that those SWAT teams, usually assigned to the Nashville field office, would likely be delayed or unable to respond to emergencies in the territory.
Image credits: Alexis Wilkins
That includes responding to incidents such as mass shootings or a terror attack.
“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.”
Leary further said that the security detail came as others, such as former and indicted White House adviser John Bolton, were stripped of protection.
“I would also add that this comes at a time when security details were stripped from people who are under threat from IRGC QF [Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps],” Leary said.
His use of the government-owned plane for personal reasons came after he criticized his predecessor Wray for using his FBI jet for personal business.
“I want to ground Chris Wray’s private jet travel that he pays for with taxpayer dollars to hop around the country,” Patel said in 2023.
Wilkins shared some of the threats she has received online
Image credits: Alexis Wilkins
Under executive branch rules, the FBI director must fly on government aircraft so they can stay connected through secure communications at all times and be ready to deploy rapidly if a crisis arises.
The latest scrutiny over Patel’s use of government resources comes after Wilkins shared some of the threats she has received on her Instagram story.
On Monday, Wilkins posted several threats she received to her Instagram story, captioning the post, “A morning in my DMs.”
Image credits: Alexis Wilkins
“Can’t wait to celebrate your death, especially if I’m the one causing it,” one read.
Another person wrote to her, “You need to touch a bullet,” while a separate comment stated, “Someone needs to kidnap her.”
“This won’t end well for you or your lil boyfriend,” another social media user threatened.
She has launched legal action against two right-wing commentators, Samuel Parker and Elijah Schaffer, who claimed she was working for Mossad—Israel’s national intelligence agency.
In the complaint, Wilkins’ lawyers stated she “is a Christian, American-born, United States citizen, and is unaffiliated with any intelligence agency, much less the government of Israel.”