type: timeline_event
FBI Director Kash Patel assigned elite FBI SWAT team agents from the Nashville field office to provide a full-time security detail for his 27-year-old girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, despite her not living with him and maintaining a separate residence in Nashville. This marked the first time in FBI history that a girlfriend of an FBI official received such protection, with sources telling NBC News they knew of no comparable cases. Former senior FBI agent Christopher O'Leary condemned the arrangement: "This is a clear abuse of position and misuse of government resources. She is not his spouse, does not live in the same house or even the same city." Sources expressed alarm that reassigning these highly trained SWAT agents to girlfriend protection duty would prevent them from responding to critical emergencies in the Nashville area, including mass shootings and terror attacks. The abuse escalated further when Patel, on at least two occasions including one in spring 2025, ordered the security detail to escort Wilkins' intoxicated friend home after partying in Nashville. When agents initially declined, Patel called the lead agent on Wilkins' security team and yelled at him to drive Wilkins' friend home. O'Leary stated: "Not only is the assignment of FBI SWAT personnel to a security detail to protect his girlfriend inappropriate, directing these highly trained professionals to babysit his girlfriend's friend is outrageous, and demonstrative of Kash Patel's complete lack of judgment and integrity." The FBI defended the arrangement by claiming Wilkins "has faced hundreds of credible death threats related to her relationship with Director Patel," though sources noted that spouses of past directors typically received only episodic security protection when traveling with their spouse, not separate dedicated details. This revelation, reported by NBC News on November 17, 2025, added to mounting evidence of Patel's systematic abuse of FBI resources for personal benefit, following earlier scandals involving his extensive use of the FBI's $60 million government jet for personal trips to see his girlfriend.