Kash Patel isn’t the only one enjoying the perks of the top law enforcement job.
The embattled FBI Director, 46, has overextended the resources of the bureau to his aspiring country music star girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins.
Wilkins, 27, has been assigned a full-time SWAT team comprising four agents and two cars, according to the New York Times. Partners of the Bureau’s directors do not typically receive their own personal security detail, especially if they are living in different cities.
Wilkins is being protected by SWAT agents, which the FBI has said are tapped for “extremely high-risk situations” such as “a special mission, a dangerous takedown, [or] a dignitary that needs protection.”
FBI resources have been used to follow Wilkins during trips, hair appointments, and performances. Ben Williamson, an FBI spokesman, told the New York Times that the singer has been in need of protection due to death threats made against her stemming from her relationship to Patel.
The Daily Beast reached out to the FBI and Wilkins for comment. Kash’s use of federal agents for personal reasons has drawn harsh criticism from former FBI agents.
“If you want to be a celebrity or a social media star, get your own security,” Christopher O’Leary, a former senior executive in the FBI’s counterterrorism unit told the New York Times. “The inappropriateness of this cannot be overstated.”
Details of Wilkin’s extensive bureau perks come fresh off the heels of Patel’s controversial trip to Italy for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. The FBI director was criticized for using the agency’s jet to fly to the Games and watch the men’s ice hockey gold medal game. While the Bureau insisted that Patel was in Italy for official business, he was filmed in the Team USA locker room after the men’s team won.
Keystone Kash wasn’t just caught celebrating the athletes, but he was also throwing back booze too, for which he reportedly caught the ire of Trump.
“For the very concerned media - yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys,” Patel wrote on X in response to the criticism.
The Olympics trip was not the first time Patel has gotten in trouble over his use of the private jet. He was previously chastised for using the FBI plane to take him to hockey games and to visit Wilkins in Nashville.
Before he took up the mantle, Patel slammed his predecessor, Christopher A. Wray, for using the bureau’s private planes.
“I’m just saying Chris Wray doesn’t need a government-funded G5 jet to go to vacation,” Patel said in 2023. “Maybe we ground that plane. $15,000 every time it takes off. Just a thought.”
Meanwhile, neither the FBI nor local law enforcement have made much progress in the search for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie. Today host Savannah Guthrie recently announced that the family was increasing the award for her mother’s return.
