Copyright The Daily Beast
More details have emerged about FBI Director Kash Patel’s frequent taxpayer-funded flights. The embattled bureau chief came under fire in October after reports revealed he took a $60 million government jet to see his 27-year-old girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, perform at a Real American Freestyle wrestling event in Pennsylvania on Oct. 25—before jetting back to her native Nashville later that same day. The Bulwark added on Thursday that Patel’s Nashville jaunts actually began in February—just three days after he was sworn in as FBI director. Flight records show two more round-trips on March 14 and 16 between Manassas Regional Airport, near Washington, D.C., and Nashville. Patel has also logged ten government-funded flights to Las Vegas, where he reportedly maintains a residence, reports Just the News. FBI records show twelve trips to official events, including one to the FBI annual hockey tournament and a meeting with Google and Meta in San Francisco. The jet has also been used by the 45-year-old for trips to Scotland, Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere, the outlet says. Patel also took six international trips; London in May, Australia and New Zealand in July, and Japan, South Korea, and China in November. The FBI has defended Patel, according to Just the News, for taking fourteen “purely personal trips” and seven that were “both personal and business in nature,” most lasting “a few days.” But some early flights barely cleared an hour on the ground. On his first trip in February, the jet landed in Nashville at 9.40 a.m. and was wheels-up again at 10.50 a.m. Two months later, Patel’s plane touched down at 6.40 p.m. on March 14 and departed less than two hours later. It returned on March 16 for another lightning-fast visit—landing at 8.16 a.m. and leaving before 11. It’s not unusual for an FBI director to use a private jet for personal reasons—as long as the director reimburses the government the price of a commercial ticket for the trip, The New York Times reported in April. Following publication, Patel’s frequent trips to Nashville quieted down, only to resume in August, and eventually made headlines with the widely reported trip on Oct. 25. Patel previously fired back at mounting criticism in a lengthy X post—which was promptly updated with a humbling community note. The Trump official has tried to reframe the narrative as unfair “criticism” of his 27-year-old girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, whom he referred to as a “country music sensation.” Wilkins averages about 6,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. “I’ve always said—criticize me all you want. But going after the people doing great work, my personal life, or those around me is a total disgrace,” Patel wrote in an X post viewed more than 6.8 million times. “The disgustingly baseless attacks against Alexis—a true patriot and the woman I’m proud to call my partner in life—are beyond pathetic. She is a rock-solid conservative and a country music sensation who has done more for this nation than most will in ten lifetimes. I’m so blessed she’s in my life.” “People are largely not attacking Kash Patel’s significant other, but rather reacting to his firing of people who point out his usage of government funds to travel to her shows,” the community note reads. The note, rated “helpful” by users, links to an article citing Patel’s previous statements about former FBI Director Chris Wray’s private jet usage. “You ground Chris Wray’s private jet that he pays for with taxpayer dollars to hop around the country. You take away the fancy new fleet of cars from DOJ that they’re going to use to shuffle around executives,” he said in 2023 on Kash’s Corner. “You stop the construction of new buildings.” FBI spokesman Ben Williamson claimed on X last week that “There is also zero basis that he’s abusing the jet.” Williamson added: “Including weekends, Kash has flown on personal trips (home to Vegas for example) about a dozen times since February - most times limited to a couple days - whereas many who relocate for government service go home almost every weekend.”
