FBI director Kash Patel is accused of pressuring elite agents to act as chauffeurs for his girlfriend's social circle, a claim the Bureau calls '1000% false'.
The accusation, first reported by MS NOW, says members of an elite Nashville FBI detail were ordered on at least two occasions to escort a friend of Alexis Wilkins, the 27-year-old country performer dating Patel, home after nights out.
The episode is said to have involved agents refusing at first, and Patel allegedly phoning the detail leader and raising his voice until the escort was carried out. The FBI has issued an emphatic denial.
Allegations and Denials
MS NOW's account, which cites three anonymous sources described as 'with knowledge', alleges the interventions took place earlier this year in Nashville, where Wilkins spends part of her time for work. The outlet reports the detail in question consists of SWAT-qualified agents ordinarily tasked with high-risk assignments, not transport duties for private citizens.
The FBI's public affairs assistant director, Ben Williamson, took to X (formerly Twitter) to call the story '1,000% false and did not happen', saying he had checked with 'everyone involved — Alexis (who doesn't even drink), the Director, the Detail, and more' before concluding there was no corroboration. Williamson also posted that he had asked the reporter for sourcing and was told MS NOW was 'comfortable with our sourcing' despite not providing on-the-record corroboration.
1,000% false and did not happen. And I’d like to give some BTS insight into how this hogwash got printed.
— Ben Williamson (@_WilliamsonBen) December 5, 2025
I got this allegation on Tuesday. It sounded made up and I told the reporter so. I went and checked with everyone involved - Alexis (who doesn’t even drink), the Director,… https://t.co/HZfUf9TRwX
Wilkins herself mocked the reporting on social media, replying to the post by Ken Dilanian of MS NOW: 'Ken's 3 sources: the voices in his head. Nice try, Ken. Let's try something even remotely believable next time instead of some party girl trope that's lame and verifiably false'. Her public dismissals add another clear, immediate denial from those central to the story.
Context of Wider Scrutiny
The dispute over alleged escortings arrives amid a broader controversy over how Patel has used bureau resources. House Judiciary Democrats have demanded flight logs for the FBI's Gulfstream after reports of what opponents called 'date-night' trips and leisure travel on government aircraft, saying those flights warrant oversight. The committee's letter, released this week, cites press accounts and asks for documents and explanations.
Separately, three recently dismissed senior FBI officials have filed a federal lawsuit alleging politically motivated terminations and naming Patel among the defendants. That complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and announced by the plaintiffs' counsel, alleges a pattern of decision-making at the leadership level that, the plaintiffs contend, subordinated professional norms to political pressures. The suit and its accompanying press release provide a contemporaneous context of internal turmoil at the Bureau.
Taken together, the jet-use questions, the claims about Wilkins's detail, and the lawsuit portray an agency under exceptional political and public pressure, a fact that observers say magnifies any allegation of misuse of personnel or assets.
Former agents and internal critics have told reporters that assigning SWAT-trained personnel to non-tactical duties would be highly unusual and could have operational consequences for public safety.
Institutional Stakes
For rank-and-file agents, the dispute is not merely about a single drive home. Sources who spoke to MS NOW framed the episode as illustrative of a pattern in which discretionary, high-value resources have been diverted for activities critics view as personal favours, contributing to morale problems and fear among managers about retribution for dissent.
Such claims feed into larger questions about whether the Bureau's resource priorities and personnel decisions remain insulated from political or personal influence.
The personal and the professional visibly overlap for Patel. He has publicly defended personal travel on the FBI plane as lawful and cost-effective, telling interviewers he is 'entitled to a personal life' and arguing that predecessors used the aircraft more extensively. Yet those assurances have done little to blunt congressional or media interest in whether public assets and specially trained personnel are being used for private purposes.
Patel's critics and defenders will continue to clash over the facts; the documents and testimony already in the public domain suggest the battle over those facts is far from over.
