FBI Director Kash Patel is under fire after being accused of using a $60 million government jet to attend a wrestling event where his 26-year-old girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, performed.
Wilkins posted a photo on Instagram recently showing herself alongside Patel, wearing an FBI-branded hoodie, at the Real American Freestyle wrestling event at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center on Oct. 25.
Public flight logs show a government jet registered to the FBI, tail number N708JH, flew from Virginia to State College, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 25, arriving shortly before the event began. The same plane departed later that evening for Nashville, Tennessee, where Wilkins resides, before continuing on to San Angelo, Texas, the following morning.
The trip was first flagged by Kyle Seraphin, a former FBI agent turned podcaster, who accused Patel of misusing government resources during a government shutdown.
“We’re in the middle of a government shutdown where they’re not even gonna pay all of the employees that work for the agency that this guy heads,” Seraphin said on The Kyle Seraphin Show. “And this guy is jetting off to hang out with his girlfriend in Nashville on our dime?”
He went on to accuse Patel and Wilkins of “grifting off the American public,” adding, “He flew a $60 million aircraft to go hang out there. Is that gross to anybody else?”
While FBI directors are required-use travelers so they must use government aircraft for all trips, even personal ones, they are expected to reimburse the government for the cost of a standard coach fare. A flight from State College to Nashville could cost about $239, according to Expedia.
The FBI and Wilkins have not commented on the accusations.
Patel, 45, has previously criticized others for similar actions. In 2023, he posted on Truth Social blasting former FBI Director Christopher Wray for “jetting off on taxpayer dollars,” calling him a “#GovernmentGangster.”
Seraphin, who has previously clashed with Patel and Wilkins, is also being sued by Wilkins for $5 million in defamation after he accused her of being a “honeypot” sent by Israeli intelligence to be in a relationship with Patel and alleged she is a former Israeli spy.
A “honeypot” is slang for someone used as bait to lure or trap others, often for purposes like espionage, blackmail, or scams. While the phrase can also describe someone whose attractiveness draws attention, its main meaning comes from spy tactics, where an operative seduces or befriends a target to extract secrets or gain leverage.