US FBI chief Patel under scrutiny for use of SWAT teams to protect his girlfriend

When Ms Alexis Wilkins, an aspiring country singer dating FBI Director Kash Patel, sang The Star-Spangled Banner at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Atlanta in the spring, she arrived with a formidable protective posse – a SWAT team from the bureau’s local field office.

The two agents, members of a specialised unit trained to storm barricaded buildings and rescue hostages, had been sent there on Mr Patel’s orders. But seeing that the event at the Georgia World Congress Center had been secured, and that Ms Wilkins was in no apparent danger, they left before the event was over, according to six people with knowledge of the incident.

She noticed. So did her boyfriend.

Soon after, Mr Patel ripped into the team’s commander, saying that his girlfriend had been left without taxpayer-funded defenders, and slamming what he saw as failure to communicate their movements up the chain of command during her time on the convention floor – where she sang and chatted with attendees, the people said.

He was concerned that Ms Wilkins, a high-profile conservative, might be attacked by people who had threatened her online.

Mr Patel’s heavy use of US taxpayer-funded resources during his first nine months on the job has contributed to growing questions inside the administration about whether it exceeds the bounds of standard practice. This includes an intense use of security to protect himself and his girlfriend.

He has also used a government jet for some of his recreational travel, such as a golf trip with buddies to a private resort in Scotland over the summer.

Directors must fly on government aircraft for their travel because of required access to secure communications equipment. But using government jets for business trips, or to return home if they have left settled lives in other parts of the country to serve in Washington, requires planning and coordination.

Government security protection for Ms Wilkins to attend events or performances has drawn particular attention, including criticism from some of the same right-wing online personalities that supported his efforts to shake up the bureau.

“Is she considered Kash’s spouse?” Ms Grace Chong, an influencer who works for a Donald Trump ally, Steve Bannon, asked on the social platform X recently about Ms Wilkins’ use of bureau resources. “Is that why she’s getting protection because if not then why are we paying for this?”

The officials and others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, or because they were not authorised to discuss the matters publicly.

The director has his own security detail that protects Ms Wilkins if the two travel together. But current and former FBI officials said that the use of SWAT agents to protect Mr Patel’s girlfriend was highly unusual, given their specialised and often dangerous duties such as executing high-risk warrants and investigating cases.

SWAT teams do not receive extensive training in VIP protection at the FBI Academy but have been used to supplement the director’s security detail in certain circumstances, such as a trip Mr Patel took to Britain in May or another that one of his predecessors, Robert Mueller, once took to Iraq.

The current and former officials said that the cornerstone of VIP protection lays in advance planning. But Mr Patel’s reliance on tactical teams around the country appears to be done on an ad hoc basis, with agents in some instances getting little notice before being dispatched to protect Ms Wilkins, they said.

Mr Patel’s use of these resources has drawn sharp criticism from some former agents, including Mr Christopher O’Leary, a former Marine who as a senior FBI agent oversaw a specialised team that conducted high-risk missions.

“His abusive and excessive use of the GV Jet for his personal adventures and the assignment of SWAT-qualified special agents to guard his girlfriend are indicative of his lack of leadership experience, judgment and humility,” he added, referring to the Gulfstream model of Mr Patel’s government plane.

Former officials with expertise in tactical operations have also raised legal concerns. It was unclear if members of the SWAT team assigned to Ms Wilkins would be afforded protection against civil liability akin to what other federal agents who might use deadly force as part of their official duties receive, according to several people with knowledge of those discussions.

When SWAT teams go on missions, agents are supposed to make plans describing the parameters of the operation – except in emergencies, former officials said.

All of this comes at a time of potentially deep cuts to the FBI’s budget. In May, Mr Patel told senators that he backed a White House proposal to slash his agency’s budget by about US$500 million (S$653 million), an abrupt about-face after requesting additional funding.

Mr Ben Williamson, a spokesperson for Mr Patel, said his spending on transportation was comparable to that of his recent predecessors, Christopher Wray and James Comey.

He declined to provide details about Ms Wilkins’ travel and security, or an accounting of what was spent on them, but said that everything being done on her behalf was justified by threats she faces. He took issue with the determination by agents on the team that Ms Wilkins was out of danger at the NRA convention.

“Ms Wilkins is receiving a protective detail because she has faced hundreds of credible death threats related to her relationship with Director Patel,” Mr Williamson said in a statement, adding, “Bad faith criticisms of FBI travel will not deter the bureau from our mission.”

The incident in Atlanta was not the first time that SWAT team members had been used to protect Ms Wilkins, 27, who has been in a relationship with Mr Patel, 45, for about three years. SWAT team resources have been diverted to protect Ms Wilkins several times in recent months, including in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives.

In late September, bureau officials recalled agents on the tactical team to the FBI office in Salt Lake City, even after they had worked long hours in the wake of the killing of a longtime Trump ally, Charlie Kirk, in Utah. They were reassigned to provide Ms Wilkins with additional protection at a political event out of concern that she could also be targeted.

SWAT teams from the FBI field office in Las Vegas have also been deployed to protect Mr Patel when he stays at his residence there, which has been the target of at least one swatting attack in the past year, according to two former officials with knowledge of the situation.

Ms Wilkins has also accompanied Mr Patel on at least one of his trips abroad. In May, she flew to London to meet him at a secret national security conference at a resort outside of London, according to a former official with knowledge of the situation.

The director’s detail greeted her at the airport and used a bureau vehicle from the US Embassy to take her to the lodge.

Since taking over in February, Mr Patel, who is said by associates to enjoy the swag and trappings of his post – personalised commemorative coins, cheroots, FBI-branded jackets – has made extensive use of the director’s small private jet and a larger Boeing 757. Many of the trips have been for business purposes; some have been to fly back and forth to Nevada or to see Ms Wilkins in Nashville.

If the travel is personal, directors must reimburse the government for use of the plane at the price of a commercial ticket – an amount far less than the thousands of dollars it actually costs to operate a small Gulfstream jet.

In response to earlier reporting about his use of a government plane, an FBI spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that Mr Patel had taken about a dozen personal trips since becoming director.

By comparison, during a four-year period, Mr Mueller, who was known for his grinding work ethic, took 10 flights out of nearly 300 that required reimbursement, according to a 2013 report from the Government Accountability Office.

In late August, Mr Patel flew on a government jet from the Washington area to an airport in Inverness, Scotland. The destination was an exclusive golf resort, the Carnegie Club, for a getaway with friends, including former Navy SEALs, along with people he had met as a public defender and in travels overseas earlier in his career. Ms Wilkins did not attend.

On-the-ground preparations were extensive and expensive. FBI agents coordinated Mr Patel’s transportation and security arrangements with Scottish and British authorities. This entailed deploying an advance team and round-the-clock security personnel known as “ravens” to guard Mr Patel’s plane, according to a former US official with direct knowledge of the matter.

Ms Williamson said the expenses he incurred were in line with transportation and security costs required to protect FBI directors wherever they travel. Mr Patel followed “ethical guidelines,” and the group paid for lodging, food and airfare, he said.

Late in October, Mr Patel took another flight, also at taxpayer expense, to Texas, where he visited a private hunting ranch owned by a friend, according to people with knowledge of his travel. The trip was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

But a shorter jaunt, one Mr Patel took to State College, Pennsylvania, on Oct 25 to a Freestyle Wrestling event to watch Ms Wilkins sing, pushed grumbling about Mr Patel’s use of government resources – particularly on the right – into the spotlight.

Leading the charge was Mr Kyle Seraphin, a former FBI agent turned conservative podcaster, who accused Mr Patel of using the jet to hang out with his “chick” during a government shutdown.

In October, Mr Patel responded to the first wave of questions about Ms Wilkins with a long post on his personal X account.

“The disgustingly baseless attacks against Alexis – a true patriot and the woman I’m proud to call my partner in life – are beyond pathetic,” he wrote. “She is a rock-solid conservative and a country music sensation who has done more for this nation than most will in 10 lifetimes.”

When Mr Wray used the bureau’s jet for personal reasons during his own tenure, Mr Patel was one of his most vocal critics. In a 2023 interview, Mr Patel chided Mr Wray by name, saying he did not need “a government-funded G5 to go to vacations.”

“Maybe we ground that plane,” Mr Patel added. “Fifteen thousand dollars every time it takes off. Just a thought.”

That thought has not translated to action. Instead, Mr Patel has tried to limit public disclosure of his movements.

After pictures of Mr Patel at Ms Wilkins’ performance at the wrestling event surfaced online, journalists used publicly available flight-tracking data to determine that he had used a government plane to get there.

Mr Patel then ousted a senior bureau official he blamed for not obscuring the plane’s identification number, according to a former law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter.

Mr Patel is the first director since Mr J. Edgar Hoover to be unmarried, so the typical protocols for spouses and children do not quite apply, in part because Ms Wilkins lives in Nashville. The director maintains a residence in Las Vegas.

Many of Mr Patel’s critics do not begrudge him the right to live where he wants or to date who he wants. The questions revolve around Ms Wilkins’ apparent access to protective services and other government assets that exceed typical practice.

Ms Wilkins has cultivated a far more conspicuous public profile than the spouses of other directors, and has not shied away from promoting herself and Mr Patel as a MAGA power couple.

She is an entertainer who has recorded patriotic country pop songs that have had modest success on streaming platforms; a gun rights activist; and a partisan provocateur who exhibits some of the same bellicosity as the man who describes her as his life partner.

Ms Wilkins has suggested that her public persona and her partnership with Mr Patel have made her a potential target, justifying a high level of protection.

Last week, Ms Wilkins posted images of recent threats suggesting she should kill herself and warning her to take a bullet. Another image was time-stamped Feb 22, 2025, the day after Mr Patel was sworn in.

“A morning in my DMs,” she wrote. NYTIMES