The FBI Director is facing fresh controversy after reports allege that Patel turned an official work trip into a luxury outing with his girlfriend. While the FBI has defended the visit as official business, critics have raised questions over the ethics and optics surrounding the travel.
FBI Director Kash Patel is facing renewed scrutiny after reports alleged he turned an official work trip into a luxury outing involving his girlfriend, raising fresh questions over his use of bureau resources.
According to a New York Times report, the 46-year-old FBI Director allegedly flew with his 27-year-old girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, on the FBI’s Gulfstream V jet from Washington to Philadelphia on May 10, 2025, to attend a country music concert before returning later the same night.
The report claims the couple watched George Strait and Chris Stapleton perform from a private suite costing between $35,000 and $50,000. FBI flight crew and security personnel reportedly remained on duty until after 11 pm, waiting for Patel and Wilkins to leave the venue, accruing overtime pay in the process.
The report also noted that Patel was contacted for a response through an FBI spokesperson, but he declined the request. Meanwhile, the bureau instead said that Wilkins had been “an invited guest” of the performers.
The allegations add to growing controversy over Patel’s travel and use of FBI resources, with reports highlighting concerns that his official trips have increasingly included personal or leisure elements involving his girlfriend.
The latest claims come days after Patel was criticised over a so-called “VIP snorkel” excursion near the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor, a site honouring US service members killed in the 1941 attack.
Responding to the report, FBI spokesman Ben Williamson pushed back in a post on X, saying the AP had mischaracterised the trip and emphasising that it was, in fact, an “official trip.”
“The AP is attempting to spin an invitation from the Commanding General of Indo Pacom [US Indo-Pacific Command] to a military base as a party or vacation, which is so stupid,” said FBI spokesman Ben Williamson in an X post.
“The DoW [Department of War] routinely does these engagements with inter-agency partners — to include this one — and when he was Chief of staff for [the Pentagon] in Trump 1, Patel offered the same event for many partners that came to visit,” he added.
Another earlier trip under media scrutiny is Patel’s Hawaii visit. He travelled to Hawaii in July 2025 to meet members of the Honolulu Field Office and other federal and local law enforcement partners, according to a previously issued agency press release.
The bureau has maintained that the Hawaii trip was official, with an FBI spokesperson previously stating it was part of a “historical tour to honor heroes who died on the USS Arizona – not a party.”
The bureau’s release highlighted that the meeting focused on “crime trends and threats to the homeland,” including discussions on “violent crime initiatives and casework.”
The bureau further informed that the August visit formed part of “the Director’s public national security engagements last August with counterparts in New Zealand, Australia, our Honolulu Field Office, and the Department of War.”
Critics, however, have questioned the optics of the visits.
Stacey Young, the founder of Justice Connection, a “support group” for Department of Justice personnel fired under the second Trump administration, criticised the August trip in comments to the Associated Press.
Young said that it “fits a pattern of Director Patel getting tangled up in unseemly distractions, this time at a site commemorating the second-deadliest attack in US history, instead of staying laser-focused on keeping Americans safe.”
Meanwhile, the report also noted that the US Navy and the National Park Service have permitted military and government officials to “swim at the [Arizona] site” dating back to the Obama administration.
“I have not heard of anyone who would object to these visits as they are very rare and there aren’t any survivors of the Arizona left alive,” wrote Deidre Kelley, national president of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.
“Their children might have some objections but I haven’t heard any.”
Patel has also drawn scrutiny over a trip to Milan during the Winter Olympics, where video showed him celebrating with members of the US men’s hockey team and chugging a beer.
