FBI Director Kash Patel has — on more than one occasion — ordered that the security detail protecting his girlfriend escort one of her allegedly inebriated friends home after a night of partying in Nashville, according to three people with knowledge of the incidents.
Patel’s girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, asked FBI agents on her security team at least two times, including once this spring, to drive her friend home, and agents objected to diverting from their assignment, said the sources, who were granted anonymity to discuss nonpublic matters. But Patel insisted they do as Wilkins requested and in one case called the leader of Wilkins’ security detail and yelled at him to do so.
News of the effort to deploy agents to provide security for a private citizen has spread through the bureau and beyond, as agents have grown increasingly concerned by Patel’s use of the bureau’s strapped resources, the people said.
FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson did not answer questions about multiple inside accounts of Wilkins’ detail being diverted, but broadly denied such events took place.
“This is made up and did not happen,” Williamson said.
At Patel’s direction, the FBI provides a separate security detail for Wilkins, 27, a country music performer who lives part time in Nashville for her work. The FBI security detail, first reported by MS NOW, is made up of members of an elite SWAT team based in the area. It has spurred concerns about Patel abusing FBI resources to essentially drive his girlfriend around for various events and appointments. The FBI has never before provided a separate security detail for a director’s girlfriend. Spouses of past directors typically received episodic security protection, but only when they were traveling with their spouse and the director’s detail.
Former FBI agents and senior law enforcement officials said it was already disturbing that Patel had pulled elite tactical agents away from their SWAT mission to drive his girlfriend around town. But they told MS NOW they were shocked that the director instructed tactical agents to use their time on yet another person the FBI had no reasonable duty to protect.
“Not only is the assignment of FBI SWAT personnel to a security detail to protect his girlfriend inappropriate, directing these highly trained professionals to babysit his girlfriend’s friend is outrageous, and demonstrative of Kash Patel’s complete lack of judgment and integrity,” said former FBI agent Christopher O’Leary, an MS NOW contributor. “FBI agents serve the public and swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. This is clearly a long way from that.”
Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino were criticized this week as ineffectual leaders who have left the FBI “rudderless” since they took the helm, according to a report, based on anonymous complaints and accounts from more than 20 former and current FBI and law enforcement personnel. Patel was described as “insecure,” often exploding into tantrums, and lacking the professionalism to withstand the public spotlight that is a natural part of his position.
The report, dated November 2025, appears to have been prepared for delivery to both the Senate and House judiciary committees.
The report cited one agent, a self-described Trump supporter, as saying that Patel “lacks the requisite experience” or the “measured self-confidence” to be FBI director.
One source for the report stated, “Director Patel’s composure erodes very quickly when confronted by critics,” which appeared to be “a reflection of Director Patel’s lack of self-confidence.”
“Not only is the assignment of FBI SWAT personnel to a security detail to protect his girlfriend inappropriate, directing these highly trained professionals to babysit his girlfriend’s friend is outrageous, and demonstrative of Kash Patel’s complete lack of judgment and integrity.”
former FBI agent Christopher O’Leary
In the wake of the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the report said Patel called Robert Bohls, the special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City office, and yelled at him about the lack of progress in the case, asking if he needed to go out to Utah to run the investigation himself.
Upon arriving in Salt Lake on Sept. 11, Patel directed “an expletive-laden tirade” at Bohls, complaining about what Patel considered blunders in the Kirk probe, the report said.
At the same time, according to the report, agents found Patel’s manner and priorities during his visit disconcerting, and he became the subject of agent derision. Patel, the report said, would not get off his FBI jet until agents brought him a medium-size FBI raid jacket to wear for the cameras outside. The report said agents involved in the probe had to be pulled away from their assignments to help find a jacket that would fit Patel. The director also insisted that some shoulder patches be attached to the jacket, and these were ultimately borrowed from a female FBI agent, the report said. In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday night, Patel addressed the leaked report, saying the jacket story is “100% false.” “One of my agents handed me a jacket and said, ‘Hey, boss, you should probably wear this, we’re going to the command center.’ I said I would be honored to wear that,” Patel said. “And another one handed me the SWAT team badge of the unit that was protecting the area where Charlie was assassinated. I wore that with pride.” MS NOW reported last week that President Donald Trump is considering removing Patel as FBI director in the coming months, as Trump and his top aides have grown increasingly frustrated by a series of unflattering headlines, including Patel’s use of a government jet for what critics called a “date night” to see his girlfriend perform in Pennsylvania. Patel and the White House disputed that Trump may replace the FBI director. Some former agents compared Patel’s decisions about personal use of bureau resources to those of William Sessions, the first FBI director to be fired in U.S. history. In 1993, President Bill Clinton fired Sessions based on an internal investigation that found Sessions had misused FBI resources for personal trips for himself and his wife. A report documented that Sessions, who was first appointed by President George H.W. Bush and continued as director in the Clinton administration, forced security agents off FBI planes and demanded they fly commercially so that his wife could accompany him at government expense. At Sessions’ direction, the report concluded, FBI aircraft were diverted to pick up his wife in other cities, and FBI vehicles were employed to take her to get her nails done, shop and pick up firewood. The report, conducted by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, found that Sessions had scheduled official appointments in specific locations to justify charging the government for personal travel and improperly billed the FBI almost $10,000 for a fence around his home. In the Fox News interview, Patel addressed the jet controversy, insisting that he is not allowed to fly commercially. “I’m entitled to a personal life, just like my other agency-head counterparts with their partners. Do I support my girlfriend? Absolutely. Do I take trips with her? Absolutely. But when they’re talking about raid jackets and Velcro and FBI plane use, they’re not talking about the facts, because they know this FBI is succeeding in ways prior leadership failed,” Patel said. “I am a steward of the taxpayer dollars.”
Carol Leonnig is a senior investigative reporter with MS NOW.
Ken Dilanian is the justice and intelligence correspondent for MS NOW. Recommended
