Coffee, Tea and Me: FBI Director Kash Patel Accused of Using Government Jet for a Date with Girlfriend

FBI Director Kash Patel is facing accusations of using a government jet to travel to a wrestling event where his girlfriend performed, then flying her to Nashville—all on the taxpayers’ dime and during a government shutdown when FBI employees aren’t receiving paychecks.

The controversy erupted after country singer Alexis Wilkins, 26, Patel’s romantic partner, posted a photo on Instagram showing herself with the 45-year-old FBI director at the Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State University on Saturday, October 25. In the photo, Patel is wearing an FBI-branded hoodie at what appears to be a Real American Freestyle wrestling event where Wilkins performed.

The Flight Logs Tell the Story

According to The Daily Beast, public flight logs for the FBI plane registered as N708JH reveal a telling travel pattern. The aircraft landed at Pennsylvania’s State College Airport on October 25—the day of the wrestling event—at 5:40 p.m. EST. It then took off from the same airport at 8:03 p.m. EST and landed in Nashville at 8:28 p.m. CDT.

Nashville is where Wilkins lives, according to multiple reports.

The controversy was first highlighted by Kyle Seraphin, a conservative former FBI agent turned FBI-critical podcaster. “We’re in the middle of 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 his Monday episode of The Kyle Seraphin Show, according to The Daily Beast. “And this guy is jetting off to hang out with his girlfriend in Nashville on our dime?”

According to Primetimer, Seraphin posted on social media with a satirical caption purportedly from Patel: “Dear FBI Employees: I’m sorry the government ISN’T funded, so you won’t be getting a paycheck. Luckily, that doesn’t stop Real American Freestyle WRESTLING! So I flew the FBI jet to State College PA, hung out with my chick, and then flew to Nashville where she lives. -Ka$h.”

Seraphin accused the couple of “grifting off the American public.” He flew a $60 million aircraft to go hang out there. Is that gross to anybody else?” he said.

The Irony: Patel’s Past Criticism

The allegations are particularly ironic given Patel’s previous vocal criticism of his predecessor for similar behavior. In a 2023 Truth Social post, The Daily Beast reported, Patel dubbed former FBI Director Christopher Wray “#GovernmentGangster” and criticized him for “jetting off out on tax payer dollars while dodging accountability for the implosion of the FBI on his watch.”

If Patel reimbursed the government for the trip, he would have paid that amount—while the actual cost of operating the $60 million government jet would have been substantially higher and borne by taxpayers.

Now Patel faces similar accusations—with the added complication that the alleged personal travel occurred during a government shutdown affecting FBI employees.

Not the First Time

According to The Daily Beast, this isn’t Patel’s first brush with controversy over taxpayer-funded travel to see his girlfriend. In April 2025, just two months after becoming FBI director, he reportedly took multiple trips to Nashville to see Wilkins. He also flew her around to hockey games.

CBS News reported in April 2025 that Patel’s use of FBI Gulfstream jets “appears to extend to his frequent trips to Las Vegas, where he has a home, and to Nashville, where Patel’s girlfriend, who is a country singer, lives.”

According to CBS, sources familiar with Patel’s travel confirmed to the network that the director was on the plane for several trips, including a weekend dash to Las Vegas on March 7 and a weekend in Nashville on March 14.

CBS also reported that on February 24, one of the FBI’s Gulfstream 5 jets flew from Manassas, Virginia to Nashville, stayed on the ground for just an hour and 27 minutes, then returned to Manassas.

The Legal Framework: “Required Use” Travelers

According to Snopes, which fact-checked the claims, FBI directors are designated as “required use” travelers on government-owned aircraft. This means they must use government planes for all travel—both personal and professional—due to “bona fide communications or security needs of the agency or exceptional scheduling requirements,” according to the United States Office of Management and Budget and the Government Accountability Office.

However, “required use” travelers must reimburse the government the equivalent of a coach fare for flights taken for personal reasons.

According to The Daily Beast, a commercial coach ticket from State College to Nashville costs approximately $239. If Patel reimbursed the government for the trip, he would have paid that amount—while the actual cost of operating the $60 million government jet would have been substantially higher and borne by taxpayers.

Former FBI directors James Comey and Christopher Wray both faced criticism for improper use of government planes for personal reasons, The Daily Beast noted. The question becomes: If travel is genuinely personal, should “required use” travelers be allowed to use expensive government aircraft and reimburse only the cost of a commercial ticket?

Congressional Oversight Question

On Monday, Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CBS News: “The Judiciary Committee must investigate Director Patel’s apparent misuse of taxpayer dollars. The American people expect an FBI Director who focuses on the security and safety of the nation, not someone wrapped up in the trappings of the spotlight.”

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who previously questioned Wray’s use of FBI jets and whether it amounted to abuse of taxpayer money, has been more circumspect about Patel. According to CBS News, a Grassley spokesperson said the senator is “still waiting on the FBI” for records regarding Wray’s use of jets and criticized Democrats and media for not showing “any interest in scrutinizing FBI Directors’ travel logs until Kash Patel came on the scene.”

Grassley’s office did not respond to CBS’s question about whether the senator would continue his oversight of FBI directors’ government jet travel while Patel is director.

According to Snopes, the FBI has not responded to requests for comment about whether Patel and Wilkins were on the flights in question. Snopes also submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to see passenger logs from the flights, which the FBI is required to keep.

This story was aggregated by AI from several news reports and edited by American Kahani’s News Desk.