FBI director Kash Patel flew from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida down to Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday, following intense backlash online after he used a government jet to visit his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins.
Newsweek has contacted the FBI via email for comment outside of regular working hours.
Why It Matters
Patel used a government jet to see his girlfriend perform at a Real American Freestyle event at Pennsylvania State University. The story was first reported by the Bulwark and prompted swift backlash online.
Senior government officials in the U.S. are generally required to travel on government jets for security reasons. Usage of jets, though, can prompt criticism and in this instance comes as the government is in shutdown, raising questions about the usage of federal money at such a moment, when the daily activities of departments have stalled.
The FBI has responded to scrutiny over the aircraft usage, and said no rules were violated. The FBI’s Assistant Director for Public Affairs, Ben Williamson, wrote on X that the criticisms of Patel’s travel are “disingenuous and dumb.” Patel meanwhile hit back at the scrutiny and what he termed, “baseless attacks,” on his girlfriend, who is a 26-year-old country music singer.
What To Know
Kyle Seraphin, the former FBI agent who describes himself as a “recovering FBI agent,” and is a conservative podcaster, posted about the flight on X. His post came after a post from the account AFPost which claimed that Patel is trying to block the tracking of government jets went viral.
“Didn’t work. Still tracking,” Seraphin wrote alongside a screenshot of the flight path from Mar-a-Lago to Nashville.
Publicly available flight data from ADS-B Exchange confirms this flight path. Newsweek has compiled this into a tracker.
The flight schedules of Patel are public and available to track.
It has been speculated online that Patel took the flight to visit Wilkins, as according to information on her website, she lives in Nashville. However, neither he nor Wilkins has publicly confirmed this.
Wilkins is from Arkansas, according to information on her website.
Patel shared a post on X where he hit out against criticism of Wilkins: “We will not be distracted by baseless rumors or the noise from uninformed internet anarchists and the fake news.”
As of reporting, a community note has been added to Patel’s post. It reads, “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.”
Following the reports about the government jet, Bloomberg Law reported that Patel fired top FBI official Steven Palmer.
Palmer, who had been working at the bureau since 1998, was head of the FBI’s critical incident response which is charged with the handling of security threats and overseeing the agency’s fleet of jets. Bloomberg Law cited three unnamed sources who had shared shocked responses to the reported firing.
Newsweek has not independently verified these reports.
What People Are Saying
Ben Williamson, the FBI’s Assistant Director for Public Affairs, in a post on X: “Kash himself has significantly limited personal travel—but he’s allowed to take personal time on occasion to see family, friends or his longtime girlfriend. He doesn’t do it often. He works far more full weekends than he does otherwise. And maybe most importantly—ask anyone who works for him, he’s on duty 24/7 regardless.”
Kash Patel, the FBI Director, in a post on X: “I and this FBI will stay laser-focused on our mission and continue the reform we promised—rebuilding this Bureau from the ground up. And to our supposed allies staying silent—your silence is louder than the clickbait haters.”
A post from the account @ML3democrats, a Democratic Activist on X viewed 1.6 million times: “Kash Patel (THE LEAST QUALIFIED FBI DIRECTOR IN HISTORY) was caught using a $60 million FBI Jet for a date night But we can’t afford SNAP.”
A post from the account @GeneralMCNews, which posts news on social media, viewed 4.6 million times: “FBI Director Kash Patel has asked to halt public tracking of government-owned jet after reportedly using it last week to fly out and watch his girlfriend perform at a wrestling event.”
What’s Next
Though Patel has reportedly been angered by the media coverage of the flights, he has not explicitly acknowledged it, something he may go on to do publicly.