Embattled FBI Director Kash Patel’s fiery defense of using one of the bureau’s taxpayer-funded jets as his personal Uber has decidedly backfired.
Patel, 45, responded to mounting criticism after being accused of using government planes to rendezvous with his girlfriend through a lengthy X post on Sunday—one that was promptly updated with a humbling community note on Tuesday.
The Trump official tried to reframe the narrative as unfair “criticism” of his 26-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 a 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.”
But X’s fact-checking feature was quick to set the record straight.
“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.”
Patel landed in the hot seat after he was spotted at the Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State University, where his so-called sensational girlfriend performed at a Real American Freestyle (RAF) pro-wrestling event on Saturday. Wilkins posted a picture of herself with Patel—sporting an FBI-branded hoodie—at the event to her Instagram account on Sunday, the morning after the show.
Public flight logs for Patel’s plane, N708JH, reveal the aircraft landed at Pennsylvania’s State College Airport on Oct. 25—the day of the RAF event—at 5:40 p.m. EST. It took off from the same airport at 8:03 p.m. EST and landed in Nashville at 8:28 p.m. CDT. It departed the next morning at 9:37 a.m. CDT for San Angelo, Texas, for unknown reasons.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
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