Kash Patel Takes $60M FBI Jet to See Girlfriend 2 Years After Slamming His Predecessor for Using Government Plane

Two years after criticizing his predecessor for using private jets, FBI Director Kash Patel is under fire for reportedly using a government-owned aircraft to visit his girlfriend.

According to The Daily Beast and The New Republic, Patel used a $60 million FBI jet to travel to State College, Pennsylvania, where his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a wrestling event at Penn State University’s Bryce Jordan Center. Wilkins shared photos from the October 25 event, hosted by Real American Freestyle, on her X account, including one showing her posing with Patel inside what appeared to be the venue.

Patel, who has long criticized government officials for using taxpayer-funded travel for personal reasons, once said on his podcast Kash’s Corner that he wanted to “ground Chris Wray’s private jet travel that he pays for with taxpayer dollars to hop around the country,” referring to his predecessor, Christopher Wray, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump.

Patel’s travel habits have raised eyebrows before. In April, CBS News reported that he took multiple government-funded flights between Washington, D.C., and New York City in one weekend—one trip for a charity hockey event and another to attend a New York Islanders game in a luxury box alongside Wayne Gretzky.

During a September Senate hearing, Vermont Sen. Peter Welch confronted Patel about his travel. “Everyday FBI agents who are assigned in Washington don’t get to fly home on a private jet,” Welch said. Patel responded that Congress had made it “mandatory” for him to use government planes. Welch retorted, “Well, we didn’t make it mandatory that you go to UFC games with Mel Gibson,” referencing Patel’s attendance at a March MMA event in Las Vegas.

On November 1, Bloomberg Law reported that an “outraged” Patel fired Stephen Palmer, head of the FBI’s critical response group, amid media coverage of Patel’s flight logs from the trip to State College. Sources told Bloomberg that Palmer’s dismissal, after 27 years with the agency, was at least partly linked to Patel’s anger over the negative publicity. Palmer had overseen the FBI’s aircraft fleet, though the flight data in question was already publicly accessible on sites like FlightAware.

In a post on X dated November 2, Patel dismissed what he called “baseless rumors” and attacks from “uninformed internet anarchists and the fake news.” He defended Wilkins as a “true patriot and the woman I’m proud to call my partner in life.”

FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs Ben Williamson later issued a statement describing the reporting on Patel’s travel as “disingenuous and dumb.” He argued that Patel, like other senior officials, is required by executive branch policy—not Congress—to use government aircraft, even for personal trips, as long as the costs are reimbursed. Williamson added that the FBI had “dramatically reduced costs of Director travel” and that Patel “has significantly limited personal travel.”

“But he’s allowed to take personal time on occasion to see family, friends, or his longtime girlfriend,” Williamson wrote. “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.”