FBI Director Kash Patel has been driven around in new armored BMWs that were bought by the bureau at his request.
The purchase was first reported by MS NOW, which said he pushed for the high-end vehicle to be “less conspicuous” when he was out, according to four sources.
It comes as Patel has been under fire for his numerous trips in a taxpayer-funded jet to visit his 27-year-old girlfriend based in Nashville, Tennessee. He has pushed back on criticism, arguing the FBI director is legally not allowed to fly commercial.
But the request for BMWs raises more questions about Patel’s penchant for luxury rides.
FBI directors have traditionally been driven in Chevrolet Suburbans with their security details.
An FBI spokesperson told MS NOW that the agency did purchase BMW X5s for the director’s use. Ben Williamson said that the bureau had planned to buy updated vehicles and claimed this was a less expensive option, but he would not provide the network with documents showing the cost of the new vehicle or that it saved money.
“Government agencies, including the FBI, routinely evaluate, replace and update vehicle fleets based on usage, security needs or budgetary decisions,” Williamson said. “The specific decisions referenced in this article were evaluated partly as a way to save taxpayers millions by picking cheaper selections or making cost structures more efficient.”
In response to Daily Beast questions, the FBI pointed to a post on X by Williamson in which he pushed back on the story Monday after it published. He wrote that the FBI “needed to update their vehicle fleet with four vehicles,” which he claimed was common for security agencies. He wrote that Patel chose a vehicle $250,000 cheaper than the traditional SUVs, saving taxpayers $1 million.
The government has a BMW contract for armored vehicles. The State Department has used them to protect diplomats in high-risk areas around the world.
Patel is the first FBI director to use armored foreign-made vehicles, despite the government’s longstanding contract with General Motors to supply its fleet of Suburbans.
A source told MS NOW that Patel is still occasionally transported in a Suburban, but they said Patel has argued he needs a “more covert manner” to get around.
A person close to the FBI director told the network that it would have cost the government $480,000 for a new armored Suburban, which was more than twice the cost of the BMW, but the source did not say why Patel even needed a new vehicle.
Former FBI officials also pointed out that previous directors have often traveled in Suburbans that were not armored in Washington since the nation’s capital and surrounding suburbs are considered low risk.
Meanwhile, MS NOW also reported that earlier this year Patel requested that the FBI buy a new jet for his use, but the push was abandoned over the cost estimates between $90 million and $115 million, according to four people.
The addition of a new vehicle and push for an upgraded jet are the latest in a series of reports about Patel’s demands at the taxpayer’s expense that have raised questions about his integrity and judgment.
The FBI director, 45, has come under fire for repeatedly using the FBI jet to travel to visit his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins as well to UFC matches, hockey games and hunting trips.
Patel has dismissed the criticism of his jet use as nonsense.
The bureau director is required to use the government jet even for personal use and has to pay the cost of a commercial flight ticket while taxpayers are on the hook for the rest of the costs, which can run thousands of dollars.
But before Patel took the gig as FBI director, he was a harsh critic of previous directors for their use of the jet for personal use.
According to another head-turning report by MS NOW earlier this month, Patel also ordered FBI agents in his girlfriend’s security detail to escort her allegedly drunk friend home.
A separate, brutal leaked internal assessment of the FBI director detailed how he refused to get off the government jet after the assassination of Charlie Kirk until agents were able to produce an FBI jacket for him.
In the end, he only emerged from the plane after a female agent handed him one, complete with patches covering the otherwise empty Velcro spaces.
Patel has also faced criticism during his tenure as FBI director for rushing to social media to give updates on investigations prematurely.
Most recently, he posted about a person of interest being arrested for the shooting at Brown University, only for the person to be released.
He made a similar blunder after the killing of Kirk when he rushed to social media to announce a shooter had been taken into custody, when the alleged shooter had not been.
